Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday continued his campaign blitzkrieg in Bihar, where he mounted a counter attack on Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for “cheating” the people with his ₹2.7-lakh crore development vision.
Addressing the BJP’s fourth ‘Parivartan Rally’ in the State in little over a month, Modi also accused Nitish and his new ally RJD chief Lalu Prasad, both products of the JP movement, of sacrificing the legacy of socialist icons Ram Manohar Lohia and Jayaprakash Narayan by aligning with the Congress.
He also accused the two leaders of spreading the “poison of casteism and communalism” during the 25 years they ruled the key Hindi heartland State.
“For two-three days after I announced a special package of ₹1.25 lakh crore for Bihar which, along with the ₹40,000 crore of the earlier package totalled ₹1.65 lakh crore, he cracked jokes about it and indulged in tall talk against it.
“But, when he realised that people of Bihar, who have sharp intelligence, have seen through his game and did not pay any serious attention, he (Nitish) changed tack. He used the same issue for which he was abusing me (special package) and came out with a vision of development of ₹2.7 lakh crore to be implemented over five years,” he said.