Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday invoked Operation Sindoor and claimed it had left the Congress’s “first family” sleepless, injecting Pakistan and the military into the Bihar election campaign.
Modi had earlier, too, been accused of politicising the army when he urged first-time voters during the 2019 general election campaign to dedicate their votes to the Pulwama martyrs and the Balakot air strike on Pakistan.
“Explosions were happening in Pakistan during Operation Sindoor, but the Congress’s first family was spending sleepless nights here,” Modi told a rally at Ara in south Bihar, a region the Mahagathbandhan had dominated in the 2020 Assembly elections.
Modi added: “The naamdars (luminaries) of Pakistan and the Congress are yet to recover from the shock.”
Modi sought to portray the Opposition alliance as divided, claiming the RJD had “held a katta (country-made pistol)” to the Congress’s head to secure the projection of Tejashwi Yadav as prospective chief minister.
“The NDA is moving forward together to build a Viksit Bharat (developed India) while the Congress and the RJD are coming to blows,” he said.
Narrating what he termed the “inside story”, Modi alleged that “a day before the deadline for withdrawing nominations, a game of thuggery played out behind closed doors”.
“The Congress never wanted an RJD leader as the chief ministerial candidate, but the RJD did not miss the opportunity. They held a katta to the Congress’s head and stole the chief minister’s post,” the Prime Minister said.
He alleged that the Mahagathbandhan had sidelined the Congress from the campaign and the drafting ofthe manifesto.
“If there is so much hatred before the polls, imagine what will happen later. Such people cannot work for Bihar’s development,” he said.
Modi described the alleged Opposition infighting as a battle between “Bihar’s most corrupt family and the country’s most corrupt family”, adding that the Congress was determined “to defeat the RJD at every single booth”.
Reiterating the charge of “Jungle Raj” against the RJD, he said the party had “hollowed out” Bihar during its rule before the Nitish Kumar-led NDA brought the state “out of a difficult era”.
“My family members in Bihar are looking at the NDA’s honest manifesto on one side, and on the other side is a document of lies and deceit — the Mahagathbandhan’s manifesto,” he said.
Modi accused the Opposition of “patronising illegal immigrants”.
“Those who defend the infiltrators’ capture of Bihar’s resources are the biggest culprits against the public,” he said, urging voters to be “cautious about the RJD-Congress alliance”.
After addressing rallies in Ara and Nawada, the Prime Minister led a road show in Patna in the evening. These constituencies will vote on November 6.