lok-sabha-elections

Updated: Mar 23, 2019 15:04 IST

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday revived his attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi at an election rally in Bihar, where his party is believed to have got a better bargain in the multi-party grand alliance for the Lok Sabha polls.

Gandhi said PM Modi “spreads hatred wherever he goes” and he is “waiting for the day when the youth of Bihar will wake up and tighten screw” on the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government.

At a public rally in Bihar’s Purnea, Gandhi said, “I am not scared of Narendra Modi, the BJP and the RSS. The only thing I am scared of…I only believe in truth.”

“Narendra Modi spreads hatred because the youth is unemployed. He ran a flop film Mann Ki Baaat for five years…People are tired of watching the same flop show of Mann Ki Baat,” said Gandhi at his Bihar rally, where he also targeted the prime minister over Rafale deal.

The Congress president said that the prime minister “has been a chowkidar of 15 rich people” and the BJP-led government is not bothered about the common people toiling hard in their daily lives.

While Gandhi was harsh on PM Modi targeting him over demonetisation, unemployment, farm loan waiver and Rafale deal, the Congress president was conspicuously silent on Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

Kumar’s Janata Dal-United is BJP’s ally in the National Democratic Alliance. The Lok Janshakti Party of Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan is the other constituent of the NDA in Bihar.

The Bihar chief minister has shared an undulating with the prime minister. Kumar had snapped his ties with the BJP ahead of 2014 Lok Sabha election over then Gujarat Chief Minister Modi’s prime ministerial candidature.

The JD-U contested the 2015 Bihar assembly polls in alliance with the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal of Lalu Prasad, and handed a resounding defeat to the BJP-led NDA. Kumar returned to the NDA fold in 2017 amid widening differences with the RJD leadership.

Gandhi, who has been critical of the BJP-led government at the Centre, has avoided a direct attack on Kumar. He maintained that stance during his Saturday’s rally in Kumar’s backyard unlike Gandhi’s approach towards Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. In his public rally in Odisha, he recently targeted Patnaik addressing him as “junior Modi”.

Bihar will vote in all seven phases of the parliamentary polls for 40 Lok Sabha seats in the state between April 11 and May 19. The state is set to witness a direct contest between the ruling NDA and the grand alliance of the RJD, the Congress, the Rashtriya Lok Samta Party of former Union minister Upendra Kushwaha, the Hindustan Awam Morcha of former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi.

The newly floated Vikassheel Insan Party (VIP) of bollywood set designer Mukesh Sahni and Loktantrik Janata Party of former JD-U chief Sharad Yadav are also part of the opposition alliance. Yadav is set to merge his party with the RJD after the Lok Sabha polls.

In the ruling coalition, the BJP and the JD-U are contesting 17 seats each while the LJP is fielding candidates on remaining six Lok Sabha seats in Bihar.

In the opposition alliance, the RJD has got 20 Lok Sabha seats as per seat-sharing arrangement. The Congress has got nine parliamentary constituencies followed by the RLSP five, and the HAM and VIP three each.