In the run-up to the Bihar polls, Prime Minister Narendra Modi would address his fourth election rally at Bhagalpur on September 1 as the BJP commences its second round of campaigning to reach out to all 243 Assembly segments in the State .
The BJP is expected to announce seat sharing with allies by the first week of September as it held many rounds of “informal talks” on the issue.
Addressing a press conference here, Bhupendra Yadav, BJP MP and in-charge of Bihar said during RJD leader lalu Prasad Yadav’s rule from 1990 to 2005 Bihar turned backward and the State met the same fate when JDU leader and the incumbent Chief Minister NItish Kumar “betrayed BJP and left out company” .
He said Kumar who was trying to debunk the financial package to Bihar had not been able to spend Rs1,000 crore which was granted to the State during Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s tenure.
The BJP leader claimed that though Nitish-lalu collected voters in the name of “social justice” they did not set up “a single new pakka hospital or school” in most of the backward areas of the State. “ In the name of social justice both committed a fraud on the people”, Yadav claimed.
The BJP leader said Prime Minister did not announce the financial package with an eye on Bihar polls as he had always advocated development of all the states and spoken about the concept of “ a Team India”. He said people of Bihar want development as was amply proved in the lok Sabha polls, last year.
Yadav said BJP was receiving “enthusiastic response” from voters when it held 50,000 meetings and contacted 60 lakh people in the process. He claimed that BJP’s ‘Partivartan yatra’ has created awareness among voters about “the misrule” of the successive State Governments under RJD and JDU parties.
He wondered as why Kumar did not hold a single public rally in the last two months. Yadav said on behalf of Kumar, SP leader lalu Prasad was making sermons and his alliance was being run by SP leader Mulayam Singh Yadav. The “ Margdarshan” for the “mahagadbandhan” was being given by Congress President Sonia Gandhi, he added.
BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra who also addressed the press conference wondered as how Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was comfortable in the company of JDU-RJD alliance. He said it was Kejriwal who in October, 2013, had questioned awarding of “light punishment” to Prasad in the fodder scam.