JDU leader Nitish Kumar waves at supporters at his Sampark Yatra in Punpun on Saturday. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Patna, Nov. 29: Nitish Kumar today ended his Sampark Yatra with an attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi for making false promises before the Lok Sabha polls and coming up with new ones now for the Assembly elections.

The yatra came to a close at Punpun, around 20km south of Patna. It started on November 13 in Bettiah, West Champaran. Former chief minister Nitish had two broad objectives to achieve through his tour that covered 34 districts — exposing Modi’s “false” electoral promises and galvanising party cadres who had become demoralised after the JDU’s dismal show in the 2014 general election.

A veteran of many such yatras, Nitish did his homework well for this one too. Modi’s speeches at election rallies in Bihar before the Lok Sabha polls blared from audio cassettes at each of the Sampark Yatra meetings. His focus — promises on bringing back black money stashed abroad and special category status to Bihar.

Today at Punpun, referring to the recorded voice, Nitish said: “You must be recognising whose voice it is. Now, do not keep silent, as our party — bereft of money — cannot carry out the publicity blitzkrieg on the scale on which BJP — a cash-rich party — can do. You (cadres) should now discuss the falsehood in your surroundings and prepare the people against the deceit and deception they were subjected to during the Lok Sabha poll campaigns.”

Nitish’s former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi said: “Bringing black money back was never part of the BJP’s election manifesto. The Prime Minister should be assessed on the completion of five years and not during the Assembly elections.”

Party spokesman Neeraj Kumar, however, said: “Nitishji has tried to trap Modi in his own lies, through the fair use of technology and research.” He added that the JDU’s ideologue-in-chief would chart out a separate programme to cover the remaining four districts.

In a departure from several of his previous yatras where he maintained a distance from the party apparatus, Nitish this time worked with the cadres. Sources said this is his attempt to counter the strong presence of the RSS cadres.

The yatra did not take off in the manner Nitish would have liked — free of controversies. A day ahead of Nitish embarking on the Sampark Yatra, chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi in Valmikinagar described upper castes as “foreigners” and the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe members the original settlers.