PATNA/DARBHANGA: As 71 seats went to polls in the first phase of the state polls on Wednesday,
PM Narendra Modi addressed three rallies in north
Bihar packing a punch against the Grand Alliance, especially targeting its CM face Tejashwi Prasad Yadav.
The PM dubbed Tejashwi as “Jungle Raj Ke Yuvraj (prince of jungle raj)”, a euphemism for the 15-year
Lalu-Rabri rule of the RJD that he said was marked by “loot and kidnapping.”
In a bid to clear the confusion in the NDA rank and file, Modi clarified at each of his rallies that the Chirag Paswan-led LJP is not a part of NDA. Chirag’s statements claiming that his party would form the government with BJP had been confusing NDA supporters.
“When I say NDA, it only means BJP, JD(U), VIP and HAM(Secular). Cast your vote in favour of the candidates from these four parties and make NDA victorious,” he said.
Praising the CM, the PM said, “Nitish Kumar will become the CM of NDA government to take the state’s developmental saga to its next stage of growth compatible with the new aspirational Bihar that has emerged after 15 years of development work done by him.”
He added, “There was a time when people of Bihar only wanted good roads, safe drinking water, electricity, and the repair of Mahatma Gandhi bridge on Ganga near Patna. Today, the aspirational Bihar wants things like Bihta airport, air connectivity, IT hubs, good riverfronts to attract tourists, better civic facilities in cities and towns, piped drinking water supply and even natural gas.”
He further said, “The aspirations will be fulfilled with central schemes, projects and assistance, and Nitish Kumar will implement them as head of the NDA government.” He chose the Kosi Mahasetu rail bridge for a special mention that he had inaugurated recently, with expeditious work done under his dispensation at the Centre.
The PM addressed rallies at Darbhanga, the biggest town in ancient Mithila, at Muzaffarpur, the biggest town in the Tirhut region that constituted the ancient Bajji confederacy of eight tribes (speaking Bajjika), and finally in Patna where once lay the ancient metropolis Patliputra.
At each of the rallies, the PM began his speech in the local languages, lacing the regions with their symbolic cultural identifications.
At Darbhanga, he invoked the names of poet Vidyapati, “mother Sita” and also caste-based folk heroes like Raja Salesh, Vir Shiromani Chuharmal and Goraiya Baba. In anthropological terms, he called Darbhanga, along with Madhubani and Samastipur districts, as the land of ‘Gyan, khan (food), paan (betel leaf), makhan’, replete with ponds and rivulets that yield fish.
The PM took to attacking the ‘jungle raj ke yuvraj’ without taking the name of Tejashwi, or any of the parties of the Grand Alliance. In his speech at Darbhanga, he used other epithets, like ‘commission khor’ and said: “What was the mantra of the previous governments? It was: ‘paise hajam, pariyojana khatam.’ They are eyeing the big-money projects which have to come to the state now.”
He added, “At a time when so much money is to be spent on tackling the
coronavirus pandemic, Bihar is faced with two dangers. The first is Corona and the second danger is from forces which have the tradition of looting and can make Bihar sick. Who knows better the track record of these forces than the people of Bihar? What more can they expect from the ‘jungle raj ke yuvraj (Tejashwi)’ in the state?”
In Patna, he largely dwelt on wooing the youths, pointing out that the ‘Sankalp Patra' of BJP and NDA would address the employment issue of youths.
“Youth will get government jobs and also in the industries established by private investors. But if ‘jungle raj’ forces form the government, the investors will run away,” PM Modi said, to counter the promise of 10 lakh government jobs made by Tejashwi.