Narendra Modi today tore into Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on his home turf for snapping ties with BJP, saying he was an opportunist who had also left Jayprakash Narayan and Ram Manohar lohia.
"People ask me why my friend left BJP. I tell them those who can stab guru Jayprakash Narayan and socialist leader Ram Manohar lohia in the back can easily leave long-time friend BJP," Modi told a rally in Patna, vowing to oust JD(U) which had quit NDA opposing his elevation as the BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate.
Addressing the mega 'Hunkar' rally at Gandhi Maidan here, Modi dubbed Kumar an opportunist who had betrayed the people of the Bihar.
His Bihar counterpart was playing 'aankh michauli' (hide and seek) with Congress, Modi said.
The Gujarat Chief Minister pointed out that his party sacrificed the chief minister's post despite having double the number of MlAs over Kumar's former Samata Party in 1999 and accepted his leadership.
"BJP sacrificed the chance of Sushil Kumar Modi becoming the CM in favour of my friend (Kumar) for the sake of clearing the jungle raj in Bihar," Modi said.
Modi said despite numerous requests from party leaders from Bihar he had kept away from the state for the sake of unity in NDA and the good of the state, which the JD(U) and BJP were trying to achieve together.
Kumar had distanced himself from Modi after the 2002 communal riots in Gujarat.
In June this year, JD(U) quit NDA saying that BJP would pick Modi as its prime ministerial candidate, which it did three months later.
Speaking in Bhojpuri initially before switching over to Hindi, Modi criticised state Rural Works and Panchayati Raj Minister Bhim Singh, saying he had belittled the martyrdom of the five Indian soldiers who were killed by Pakistani soldiers in a border attack.
Singh had said in August that, "people join the Army and police to get martyred".
Referring to those remarks, Modi, without referring to Singh, said, "A government whose minister speaks mean language deserves to be removed so that the dignity of our soldiers is not lowered."
With BJP President Rajnath Singh, leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley, actor-politician Shatrughan Sinha, former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi present on the dais with him, the Gujarat chief minister also took a snipe at RJD President lalu Prasad.
Modi referred to himself having called up Prasad in May after the RJD president was injured in a freak road accident. The windshield of the car the former Bihar chief minister had been travelling in was broken and shards of glass had injured Prasad.
Modi had tweeted following the incident that, "Spoke to lalu ji this morning asking him about his health after an accident yesterday. Hope he gets back to the best of the health soon."
"Since I come from the land which has Dwarka, (land of lord Krishna's birth) it's my duty to share the grief of yaduvanshi (caste to which Prasad belongs)," he said.
Modi also backed the special package demanded by the state unit of BJP and asked the people to wait for "another 200 days" (when the BJP would come to power).
Thanking the people of Bihar for showering love on him, Modi said he would return it "with interest".
Modi devoted almost half the duration of his nearly 45- minute speech on Nitish before switching over to the "Shahzada" and the "failure" of the UPA government at the Centre.