Modi’s Rashtriya Jadu Tona Dal barb at Lalu makes Nitish see red

After a nearly two-week-long recess, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday kicked off a high decibel campaign trail in Bihar for the third phase of elections. The third round of Bihar elections for 50 of the 243 Assembly constituencies is due on Wednesday, October 28.

Launching a scathing attack on RJD chief Lalu Prasad on his home turf, Modi called him a “tantrik” (occultist) and his party “Rashtriya Jadu Tona Party” as he reached out to the youth and weaker sections, promising a six-point programme for the state’s development. Democracy functions with the blessings of people not with tantrums of a tantrik, the Prime Minister said, asking people whether those with an “eighteenth century mindset” can develop Bihar and asked the electorate “to select and wipe out” such people from Bihar’s political landscape.

Hitting back at the grand alliance’s “Bihari versus Bahari (Bihari versus outsider)” barb to attack BJP, which is fighting the polls under the leadership of Modi and Amit Shah, the Prime Minister took up the issues of migration and unemployment among youths. In remarks laced with sarcasm, he said that he wanted to ask  the “very respectable democrat (param adarniya loktantrik) Nitish ji and the “biggest occult practitioner (tantrik) Lalu ji who made the Bihar youths outsiders by forcing them out of the state in search of livelihood.

Amid indications that the caste and reservation debate dominating the poll scenario here could be detrimental to NDA’s prospects, Modi raised the development pitch promising “bijli-paani-sadak” (electricity, road and water) and “kamai, padhai, and dawai” (earning, education and medicines) for each family in the state.

On the other hand, Modi’s arch rival Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar too launched a blistering attack from his side. In a dig at Prime Minister for his alleged failure to deliver on his election promises, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said the PM had made ‘tactical silence’ a weapon of choice which was in stark contrast to his “unmatched theatrics and rhetoric by using unsubstantiated facts”.

“Modiji was always unmatched in theatrics, rhetoric and using unsubstantiated facts. Now tactical 

silence is his new weapon of choice,” Kumar said in a series of tweets ahead of Modi’s rallies in Bihar on Sunday. Kumar questioned Modi for his silence on promises like bringing back black money from abroad, hike in MSP for farmers, employment for youths, special status for Bihar among others and charged the Prime Minister for conveniently forgetting all those promises.