Muzaffarpur/Darbhanga: RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Wednesday claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is interested in opening factories in Gujarat, but wants victory in the assembly elections in Bihar.
Addressing polls rallies in Muzaffarpur and Darbhanga, INDIA bloc’s CM candidate in Bihar also promised that cooking gas cylinders would be made available for Rs 500 if the RJD-led opposition came to power in the state.
“The Prime Minister is interested in opening factories in Gujarat but wants victory in the Bihar polls. This will not happen,” Yadav said in Darbhanga. “We will make all contractual employees of the Bihar government permanent.”
In both Muzaffarpur and Darbhanga, he shared the stage with Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha.
“Gas cylinders will be available for Rs 500 if Tejashwi forms the next government,” he told the rally in Muzaffarpur.
He also claimed that the slew of populist measures taken in the recent past by the NDA government in the state had been a “copy” of whatever he had promised earlier.
Citing an example, Yadav said, “We had promised 200 units of free electricity. Those in power got scared that this would resonate with voters. So, they made 125 units free.”
The RJD leader also sought to draw a contrast between his women-centric promises like ‘Mai Bahin Yojana’, which proposes a monthly stipend of Rs 2,500, and the ‘Mukhyamantri Mahila Rojgar Yojana’ recently launched by the Nitish Kumar government, as part of which Rs 10,000 have been transferred into accounts of over 1 crore women. “We are promising assistance. What the government has offered is money given on credit, which they will seek to recover with interest,” claimed Yadav.
The RJD leader’s posturing may be seen as an attempt to wean away a section of women voters of the state.