Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s maiden election speech near Sasaram on Friday (Oct 23) compounded the problem for the state chief minister Nitish Kumar as well as the workers and supporters of his Janata Dal United. By not speaking a word against the Lok Janshakti Party leader Chirag Paswan the Prime Minister has certainly saddened the JDU camp.
Not only that Modi’s glowing tributes to LJP founder and former Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan has been interpreted differently by the JDU rank and file. Chirag Paswan was quick to capitalise on the issue as he quickly tweeted to thank the Prime Minister for mentioning his father’s name in such a way. It is true Modi condoled the death of former Union minister and RJD leader Raghuvansh Prasad Singh as well but that was not going to cause much political storm.
Besides Sasaram, Modi addressed public rallies at Gaya and Bhagalpur too. However, it is in Rohtas district–Sasaram its headquarters town–that NDA is facing a lot of trouble following the presence of three strong LJP candidates. They are Rajendra Singh in Dinara and Rameshwar Chaurasia in Nokha. They are pitted against the JD-U candidates. Both these LJP nominees were till a few weeks back senior BJP leaders.
The other problem which Modi’s speech created was when he said that the first ten years of Nitish Kumar’s government were wasted (barbad) as the UPA government in the Centre had indulged in politics and never cooperated. In contrast he has got only three to four years to work with the BJP. This statement of Modi has caused much discontentment in the JD-U camp as till now Nitish has been highlighting the achievements of his 15 year rule.
The truth is that Nitish still highlights the work done in infrastructure, education, health and other sectors done in his first term between 2005 and 2010. He also refers about the high growth rate of Bihar in those years.After 2010 hardly any media house or any other agency has honoured him with the best chief minister award. Analysts are of the view that Modi wanted to take credit for all the works done in Bihar at the expense of Nitish.
