L.K. Advani addresses BJP’s maiden poll rally at Dumka in Jharkhand. Picture by Mani Keshri

Dumka, Sept. 23: BJP’s prime minister in-waiting L.K. Advani chose chief minister Shibu Soren’s bastion to launch his party’s poll campaign by taking credit for the formation of Jharkhand in 2000, but pointing out that its present crop of leaders had failed the new state.

“You have an international personality like Dhoni and precious minerals inside the soil of this state, but you don’t have a good government,” he told a crowd of around 9,000 people, who braved heavy rains to throng the Gandhi Maidan.

Citing the reorganisation of states bill, Advani said as Union home minister he took personal interest in the creation of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Uttaranchal as the BJP felt it was in tune with the rising aspirations of the masses.

“The states were formed but those who were assigned to run it failed to give good governance. As a result, a state like Jharkhand having immense potential sits in the back bench. Corruption and misrule blocked development.”

The BJP, he declared, was the only party which could protect the interests of democracy as well as the masses. “You give us votes, BJP will certainly give you good governments both at the Centre and in your state,” he said.

Advani then moved on to criticising the UPA government led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for failing to control rising prices of essentials, for having encouraged horse trading during the vote of confidence and for failing to punish Afzal Guru.

“I have seen as many as 14 prime ministers right from Nehru but never in my life have I seen such an incompetent prime minister like Manmohan Singh,” he said referring to the government’s “failure” to punish the man accused of spearheading the attack on Parliament.

Talking about the way BJP MPs brandished currency notes in Parliament to “expose” the UPA during the no-trust vote, Advani said the government was the reason behind the shocking incident.

“During my visits abroad, I often speak on the glorious history of our democracy. But the shameful act of the bribery incident has left me speechless. Now, what can I say?”

Advani also recalled with affection his stay at the Massanjore guest house, 30km from here, during the last Lok Sabha election campaign. “I certainly would have preferred to stay at the guest house at Massanjoree if I had the time this time,” he said. “During campaigning, I managed to spend a night there.”

The guest house at Massanjore made national headlines in 1990 when he was confined there under house arrest after being arrested by Lalu Yadav, then the chief minister of unified Bihar, at Samastipur during his rath yatra.

“The memories of Massanjore, its picturesque surroundings and particularly the old telephone set at the guest house will always be with me,” he said. But as always, Advani justified his rath yatra fromSomnath to Ayodhya to champion the cause of a Ram temple at Ayodhya and termed it a “landmark achievement” of his life because of the lasting influence it had on Indian politics.

Amid heavy rain, Advani arrived here at the Dumka airstrip around 1.35pm. Among those who were there to receive him were former chief minister Arjun Munda, state BJP in-charge Karuna Shukla, senior party leader Karia Munda and four party MLAs from Santhal Pargana.