NDA will form govt. in Bihar with two-thirds majority, says Rajnath

PATNA

Ahead of the Assembly election later this year in Bihar, senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh targeted the opposition Congress and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) on Wednesday, alleging that these parties only have the sole aim of remaining in power by any means. He was in Patna to attend the Bihar BJP Working Committee meeting, in which several resolutions were passed in the presence of senior party leaders.

Addressing the meeting, the Defence Minister sought to draw the blueprint for the BJP, “the world’s largest party”, to take on the Opposition. “When the Opposition talks about the politics of hatred, we have to answer it with the politics of service. When they talk about pushing Bihar back, we will talk about the road map of a bright future. When they distract the people of Bihar from issues, we should talk about educated Bihar,” he said.

Mr. Singh also referred to RJD’s rule in the past as “Jungle Raj” and said Bihar has suffered injustice for decades. “In the last two decades, under the leadership of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Bihar has made unprecedented progress and the old image of Jungle Raj has been broken,” he said.

Expressing confidence that the Janata Dal (United) and BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Bihar will again form the government with a two-thirds majority in the State election due in October-November, he exhorted party cadres to reach every house and share information about the schemes and achievements of the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre. “We have to convince the people that if anyone can bring back the lost glory of Bihar, it is BJP and NDA,” Mr. Singh said.

BJP State president Dilip Jaiswal, who was chairing the meeting, said everyone got new direction and energy from the speech of Mr. Singh. “Now we will go among the people and tell them about the development that has happened during the NDA government,” he said.

Resolutions passed

The BJP’s Bihar unit passed a resolution criticising the “appeasement politics” of the Mahagathbandhan helmed by Lalu Prasad’s RJD, which has been opposing the Waqf (Amendment) Act that came into force in April. The party passed a two-page political resolution, besides a ‘Vijay Sankalp Prastav’ that declared “Lalu [Prasad] and his allies cannot defeat us” in the Assembly poll.

The resolution also touched upon the Emergency imposed 50 years ago, and alleged that the “lives of many generations were wasted behind [Indira Gandhi’s] slogan ‘Garibi Hatao’. It was under Modi that 27 crore people have been able to overcome poverty”.

The resolution also lauded the Defence Minister for “giving a strong message to China, while on its soil, against double standards towards terror, by refusing to sign the joint statement at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Defence Ministers’ meeting”.