Munger, Bihar : The first phase of pollling in the Battle for Bihar in just four days away. Campaigning has reached fever pitch with top leaders of rival coalitions carpet bombing the state.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi upped the ante in poll-bound Bihar addressing 4 election rallies on Thursday. He urged the state’s voters to cast their ballot in favour of development at all four venues firing potent salvos at Nitish-Lalu and Congress at the same time.
The PM first addressed voters in Munger where he said that the election in Bihar this time around is a contest between Jungle Raj versus Vikas Raj..its the people who need to determine what they want.
Nitish Kumar was in the line of fire next in Samastipur. The PM said those who promised 24/7 power supply in the last election are still trying to live up to it. In contrast his govt at the Centre is working to take power to each home by 2022.
The last stop for the day was in Nawada..where he dubbed the Mahagathbandhan as Maha-swarth-gathbandhan. He said the 3 parties ruled Bihar for 60 years altogether but did nothing for its development.
Prime Minister Modi drew a clear contrast between the choices being faced by Bihar’s voters. He said while his govt has declared a 1.65 lakh crore rupees package for Bihar. The state govt is not utilising it. Clearly, the PM’s focus remains on the development of Bihar even while making the NDA’s poll pitch while his rivals keep raking up divisive issues.
Now, while the Prime Minister hit out at the Mahagathbandhan and its leaders through the day, Lalu Yadav and Nitish Kumar also responded to the barbs aimed at them from different political stages. Amidst all the political heat and dust, notification was issued for the fifth and last phase of polling in Bihar with some candidates filing in their papers as well.
Even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi targeted the pair of Lalu-Nitish in his rallies on Thursday, the latter who are on a heated campaign trail hit back in like measure. While the PM in his rallies claimed victory for his alliance, Lalu Yadav and Nitish claimed the same for themselves.
In his Gaya rally, state CM Nitish Kumar replied to the PM’s barbs and said that the law and order situation was much better in Bihar than many other states.
The Congress too is camping in the state with all top leaders of the party making noises in favour of the Mahagathbandhan setting aside all opinion polls party leaders claimed the Nitish led Grand alliance will be coming to power.
Back in New Delhi a team of representatives of the BJP met EC officials to register their protest against the FIR on Amit Shah saying the charges were baseless. They said there was nothing objectionable in the BJP Presidents remark.
Thursday was the last day of filing nominations for the third phase. The day also saw notifications issued for the 5th and final phase and the start of filing nominations for the same. Pollling for the 5th phase will be held on the 5th of November. Nominations can be filed till the 15th of October and the last date for withdrawal is the 19th of October.