RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Tuesday claimed that the BJP-led NDA was “jittery” in Bihar, a reason why Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s campaign in the state was being intensified.
Talking to reporters here, the former deputy chief minister also alleged that Modi betrayed the trust reposed in him by the people of Bihar, which saw little industrial growth unlike the PM’s home state of Gujarat.
“People do visit different places during elections, but it is becoming clear that the BJP is jittery this time. The attention of its top leaders, as also the ED and CBI, which are being used for settling political scores, seems focused on Bihar,” Yadav asserted.
He was responding to a query on Modi’s proposed rally at Gaya on April 16, which will be Modi’s third in the state since the Lok Sabha polls were announced. Earlier, the PM had addressed election meetings in Jamui and Nawada.
While a formal announcement of the Gaya rally is yet to be made, former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, an NDA partner who is contesting that seat, claimed that Modi has agreed to canvass in his favour on April 16.
“My only request to the prime minister is that on his next visit, he should talk about issues like farmers, poverty, unemployment and Bihar’s long-standing demand for special status,” Yadav said.
The young RJD leader has been alleging that Modi, in his Bihar speeches, diverts public attention from “failures” of the NDA government with carping criticism of the RJD’s rule in the state that ended two decades ago.
“The NDA got so much of support from Bihar in the last elections. Yet, the prime minister did not care to fulfil his promise that the state will see new factories coming up. On the other hand, look at how much Gujarat has gained during his reign,” Yadav said.
The NDA had swept the polls in Bihar in 2019, when the BJP-led coalition bagged all but one of the state’s 40 Lok Sabha seats.
Meanwhile, when senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad was approached with queries on Yadav’s remarks, he told PTI video: “Modi is prime minister of the entire country, including Bihar. Does Tejashwi Yadav think his permission has to be sought for the PM’s tours?”
Prasad, a former Union minister who is seeking re-election from the Patna Sahib seat, added, “The remarks of the RJD leader betrays desperation in the alliance of which his father and he are a part. That coalition is not able to declare even a prime ministerial candidate”.
