Patna, April 14: The BJP today launched its election campaign in poll-bound Bihar with Amit Shah predicting it would secure victory with two-thirds majority.

Shah's claim at the booth-level workers' meet of the BJP at Gandhi Maidan came amid murmurs of dissent with Patna Sahib MP Shatrughan Sinha claiming he was not invited to the event. "Neither Shah nor the state BJP leadership invited me for the meet," the two-term MP said.

Shatrughan's Buxar counterpart Ashwini Kumar Choubey left midway after finding his name missing in the list of speakers.

On the stage, Shah went all guns blazing against chief minister Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad. The BJP president, thundered: "No power on Earth can stop the BJP from conquering Bihar with two-thirds majority." Rajnath supplemented: "After watching the mood and enthusiasm of the party workers here, I am sure that the BJP will come to power with an overwhelming victory in the state."

He also sounded conscious about the Janata parivar's stepped-up campaign against the proposed land acquisition bill and the attempt to project Prime Minister Narendra Modi as anti-poor and anti-farmer.

His speech reflected the party's apprehension that the parivar leaders Lalu and Nitish - heading for a merger - might turn the land acquisition bill into an emotive issue with the poor and farmers during the campaign for the polls due later this year.

"Nitish sat on dharna on the land acquisition bill to misguide people. I guarantee that not even an inch of land acquired from the farmers will go to corporate houses. It will be used to ensure better irrigation facilities and other infrastructure for the farmers," Shah said, adding that India never got as farmer-friendly Prime Minister as Narendra Modi in its history.

Apart from Shah and Rajnath, the BJP had its top brass, including the party's organisation secretary, Ram Lal, Union communication and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, party spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, the party's face in the state, Sushil Kumar Modi, and the Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, Nand Kishore Yadav, in attendance to address the booth-level workers' meet on the occasion of the birth anniversary of BR Ambedkar at the Gandhi Maidan here. The representation of the women cadres was proportionately less.

Drawing a parallel between Nitish and Narendra Modi, Shah said: "The BJP Prime Minister has linked 13 crore people with the banking sector through Jan Dhan Yojana. He has formulated the policy to pay Rs 5,000 per month as pension to the farmers beyond the age of 60. For the first time, he has raised the assistance to the untimely rain- and hailstorm-hit farmers by 50 per cent. The Narendra Modi government is wholly committed to the cause of poor and farmers."

In contrast, Shah alleged, Nitish allotted acquired government lands to his friends and ministers. "He betrayed the 2010 mandate of the people who had voted for the JDU-BJP combine against the Lalu Prasad-led jungle raj (lawlessness). Now, he has befriended Lalu to draw Bihar back to the anarchic era that the BJP will never allow to happen."

While the party president, known for his closeness with the Prime Minister, went on refurbishing Narendra Modi's pro-poor and pro-farmers image, Rajnath attacked the Congress-led UPA for playing week-kneed to Pakistan despite its consistent " naapaak" (sinful) acts on the borders.

The state BJP leaders, especially Sushil Modi and Nand Kishore, dwelt at length on how Nitish was allegedly trying to push Bihar back to the "dark" era by getting close to "anarchic" Lalu. The state party leaders, and even Shah, appeared determined to pit the impending merger of Lalu and Nitish's outfit as the harbinger to the jungle raj-II in the state during their campaigns against Lalu-Nitish's emphasis on the "communal" and "pro-rich and anti-poor" image of the Narendra Modi-led dispensation.

Taking a pot shot at the BJP rally, Nitish said: "Its (BJP) leaders are, primarily, divisive in nature. They are not comfortable with social harmony and brotherhood. They talk about producing more children and ghar-wapsi type of issues."

On Shatrughan's absence, Nitish said: "How a party that cannot take care of its popular leader (Shatrughan), can take care of its masses?"

Lalu supplemented: "The BJP will be out on four. They (BJP) simply don't have the wherewithal to contest polls in Bihar."