LJP President and Union Minister Ramvilas Paswan, former Chief Minister and Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) leader Jitan Ram Manjhi, Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) leader and Union Minister of State Upendra Kushwaha, besides BJP's Union Minister Ananth Kumar were present on the dais.
Virtually kicking off the NDA's campaign for Bihar Assembly polls, BJP president Amit Shah launched a frontal attack on Thursday on the newly-formed secular alliance of JD(U), RJD and Congress, warning it wanted to bring back the "jungle raj". Shah also took potshots at the latent 'disharmony' in the alliance with ruling establishment's posters and hoardings blanking out RJD supremo Lalu Prasad even as he referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's backward caste origin to wean away the large OBC vote bank from RJD-JD(U) combine.
"Does Nitish Kumar want to bring back the jungle raj of the past in Bihar by joining hands with Lalu Prasad whose 15-year rule was remembered for abysmal law and order," Shah said, addressing an NDA rally in the presence of BJP allies.
Accusing Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of "backstabbing" the mandate people had given the NDA in the 2010 Assembly elections by walking out of the alliance, the BJP chief said the JD(U) leader had joined hands with Lalu only for the sake of power.
LJP President and Union Minister Ramvilas Paswan, former Chief Minister and Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) leader Jitan Ram Manjhi, Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) leader and Union Minister of State Upendra Kushwaha, besides BJP's Union Minister Ananth Kumar were present on the dais.
Underlining the strains within the secular alliance, he said while Nitish Kumar made it sure that Lalu's images were absent from the posters put out to highlight the state government's achievements, Congress president Sonia Gandhi "shunned" him.
"Still he (Lalu) considers himself as leader of the alliance," he remarked sarcastically.
"While some leaders would try to whip up caste and communal tension, remedy of all ills of Bihar is in 'vikas' (development) for which NDA government is needed in the state," he said, indicating that the BJP and its allies expect Modi's development agenda, set out during the Lok Sabha polls, to help them reap a rich electoral harvest in the Bihar polls too. Shah highlighted the performance of the Modi government in the past one year and said it would be replicated in Bihar by the future NDA government.
Acutely aware of Bihar's 'Mandalised' politics, Shah referred to Modi's 'chaiwalla' days and highlighted his OBC background.
"As the son of a tea vendor who himself sold tea in his childhood and coming from an extremely backward caste Modi knows the pain of poverty and so he is doing everything he can for the poor," he said.
Shah repeated Modi's slogan of "Congress mukt Bharat" and claimed Bihar would be another destination after Haryana, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Jammu & Kashmir where the party will be wiped out. He said Modi would unveil the roadmap for Bihar's development at a rally in Muzaffarpur on July 25.
The BJP President said the Bihar polls were very important as the fallout would not be limited to the state but would spread across the country as the message will go out "to uproot all forces opposed to dalits, poor and the downtrodden."
Referring to NDA winning 13 out of 24 seats in the recent Legislative Council polls, the BJP chief said,"People have made it amply clear which way the wind is blowing." He also slammed Nitish Kumar for forging an alliance with the Congress, saying he had "dashed the dreams" of leaders like Jayaprakash Narayan and Karpoori Thakur, a former chief minister and prominent socialist leader.
"Nitish Kumar dashed the dreams of mentor Jayaprakash Narayan as well as socialist leader Karpoori Thakur by joining hands with Congress for the sake of power," he said, and accused the Bihar Chief Minister of neglecting leaders like George Fernandes and Jitan Ram Manjhi.
The BJP chief also flagged off 160 raths (chariots), which he called the "doot" (emissary) of Narendra Modi.
"These doots will roll across Bihar spreading the message of development under the NDA government at the Centre and expose the unholy alliance of Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad," he said.
The chariots erected on pick-up vans will criss-cross the state, showing video clips of Lalu and Nitish sparring and attacking each other before forging friendship. The videos will also show the development Bihar witnessed when JD(U) and BJP together ruled the state and the achievements of the Narendra Modi government.
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