Over 50,000 people turned up for the PM's rally at Daltonganj

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today addressed his first election rallies in Jharkhand, ahead of a five-phase assembly election that starts on November 25. In his speech, the PM stuck to his party's campaign line in the state, asking for a full majority for the BJP.If the numbers were an indication of support, the PM would have been very pleased. Well over 50,000 people turned up at his rally at Daltonganj.In the Lok Sabha polls earlier this year, the BJP won 12 of 14 seats in the state, an unprecedented performance. So what it hopes to better in this assembly election, is the party's 2009 assembly election performance, where it won just 18 out of 81 seats.And so, in his speech, the PM kept his attack firmly on the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha or JMM, whose party was the incumbent in the lead up the polls."If you want prosperity in Jharkhand, first you have to rid Jharkhand of family politics. Father-son politics or any other kinds of families. If you don't do this, families will prosper but you will never prosper. Look at those who are running the government in Jharkhand right now. They are corrupt and have no shame," the PM said at Daltonganj.But in his speech, he did not mention some facts about Jharkhand - one of them being that the BJP has ruled Jharkhand for the longest time since the creation of the state in 2000. The other being that in the past, the party has not hesitated to ally with the JMM, a party PM Modi criticised heavily today.

The BJP's main political rival in Jharkhand this elections, is ironically a master at coalition politics. Shibu and Hemant Soren in the last have cozied up to both the Congress and the BJP in the state, but this time even the JMM admits it is a head on fight with the BJP.Reacting to PM Modi's speech, JMM general secretary Supriyo Bhattacharya said, "Modi has said contradictory things. His own party was part of Shibu Soren led government and then Hemant Soren was deputy in Arjun Munda government... they join hands with anyone, at that time they forget about this ideology."