RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav on Friday issued a "weather warning" for Bihar, drenched in political metaphor hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi claimed that the state has witnessed significant infrastructure development in recent years.
"Weather warning for Bihar - Today there is heavy rain of lies, false promises and illusions in Bihar, hailstones of false and tempting promises are also falling along with thunder, be careful,” the former chief minister said.
Accompanying his post was an Artificial Intelligence-generated video featuring a song that depicted "heavy rain of lies, and false promises" attributed to Modi and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar's government.
PM Modi is on a two-day visit beginning Friday, with stops in Bihar, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. In Siwan, he inaugurated several development projects.
The PM said the people of Bihar have “ended the jungle raj” created by the Congress-RJD combine.
Highlighting the achievements of the NDA government, Modi claimed that Bihar has witnessed significant infrastructure development in recent years.
“Under the NDA, 55,000 km of rural roads were constructed, over 1.5 crore households were electrified, and piped water reached 26 crore people,” he said.
PM Modi also alleged that RJD and Congress are "against investment, development of Bihar." He reiterated his commitment to the state's progress, emphasising that the NDA government is steering Bihar towards a new era of growth.
Assembly elections in Bihar are to be held later this year.
Earlier, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav fired off 12-pointed questions, challenging the prime minister to answer them during his speech.
“You have broken all the norms of misleading the people of Bihar by addressing more than 200 rallies in the last elections, which were full of lies. We humbly request you to review and analyse your previous speeches and promises before coming to Bihar. I am sure that you will not be able to talk to yourself due to the embarrassment of listening to your own speech," posted the former Bihar deputy chief minister on X.
The RJD leader demanded accountability for the state's poor rankings on key development indices. He asked the prime minister why Bihar remains at the bottom in terms of per capita income, literacy, industrialisation, employment and investment, despite over a decade of NDA rule at the Centre and two decades of governance by the "double engine" in Bihar.
Yadav further asked whether PM Modi would merely re-announce infrastructure schemes that have been “inaugurated or launched multiple times since 2015”. He said, “Will you again indulge in showy foundation-laying ceremonies of projects already underway?”
Tejashwi alleged that over Rs 2 lakh crore has been looted through more than 20 scams in 20 years of NDA rule.
“Earlier, you yourself listed 20 scams under Nitish Kumar. Will you now shy away from acknowledging them?” he asked.
Modi’s announcement in Bihar during Assembly polls has often led to controversies.
In 2015, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, who is now with the BJP, had criticised Modi's manner of announcing an economic package for Bihar during the poll campaign, saying it looked like "an auction of Bihar".
"How many times will you slaughter a chicken. He has repackaged old projects," Kumar had said.
"He talks about cooperative federalism but does exactly the opposite. He will humiliate the state government, call it incompetent... What kind of cooperative federalism is this?" he said.