Assembly election: PM Modi to address 12 rallies in Bihar
New Delhi: In an attempt to "create a wave" in favour of the ruling alliance comprising of Janata Dal (United) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the upcoming Bihar assembly election, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Patna is all set to address 12 rallies in Bihar to campaign for the NDA candidates.
The PM will address three rallies in a day and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will share the stage with him in at least one of them. The PM's first rally will be held in Dehri in Sasaram district on October 23, just a few days ahead of the first phase of polling scheduled on October 28.
On the same day, the Prime Minister will also visit Gaya and Bhagalpur, while the PM's last rally is scheduled on November 3 in West Champaran, Saharsa and Forbesganj. Notably, the second phase of polling is scheduled on November 3 and the last phase of polling will be held on November 7.
While giving details about the proposed rallies of the PM, state BJP's in-charge Devendra Fadnavis said in Patna that the PM will address rallies in Darbhanga, Muzaffarpur and Patna on October 28, the first day of voting.
The Prime Minister will address rallies in Chapra, East Champaran and Samastipur on November 1. The rally of the PM in Samastipur has been planned on the request of the JD (U) that wanted him to campaign to limit the impact of Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) as Samastipur is considered the stronghold of the LJP.
Speaker of the outgoing Vidhan Sabha Vijay Kumar Choudhary has been fielded from his traditional seat Sarairanjan in Samastipur district.
It's for the first time that PM Modi would seek votes for Nitish Kumar, a man who had opposed his elevation as the BJP's prime ministerial face in 2013 and ended his alliance with the party over it.
Even when the alliance was in place, Nitish Kumar never allowed Modi to campaign in Bihar in the 2005 and 2010 assembly elections as well as in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, apparently fearing it would backfire with Muslim voters.
In 2017, when Nitish Kumar broke the alliance with RJD and the Congress and joined hands with the BJP, Kumar revised his stand on PM Modi and started praising the Modi. During the 2019 Lok Sabha election, both of them campaigned together and Kumar asked for votes for PM Modi. It resulted in their favour as the NDA won 39 seats out of the total 40 seats.
In a virtual rally last month, PM Modi had showered compliments on the Bihar Chief Minister by saying that with an associate like Nitish Kumar, anything is possible.
