Bangalore, April 3: Amit Shah today accused Nitish Kumar of returning Bihar to "jungle raj", targeting the estranged ally with a jibe the former partners had once jointly hurled at Lalu Prasad.
A sizeable portion of the BJP president's speech at the party national executive session, which opened here today, was devoted to the Bihar elections, due later this year.
Union minister Prakash Javadekar, who briefed the media, quoted Shah as telling the party to strive for a majority and slamming Nitish for snapping ties with the BJP.
"He (Nitish) has ushered in Jungle Raj Part II and the people of Bihar are against it," Javadekar quoted Shah as saying.
"In the last elections, people had given a mandate to the BJP-Janata Dal United combine but the moment the Dal United broke off from the BJP, Bihar was plunged into the depths of jungle raj."
The erstwhile allies had coined the term "jungle raj" ahead of the 2005 Assembly elections - which they won -to describe Lalu Prasad's rule, marked by political killings, abductions and looting. They again used it during the 2010 polls, which re-elected them with a vastly improved majority.
BJP sources conceded that the "jungle raj" tag didn't quite fit Nitish's rule but added that his current association with Lalu Prasad and their prospective alliance could help revive the phrase's relevance and recall value among voters.
One of the sources cited another reason why the BJP had revived the label.
"It carries an appeal cutting across castes because every person - Brahmin, Bhumihar, Kurmi or Dalit - is affected by bad law and order," he said.
"The problem exists everywhere, in towns and villages alike, so the phrase has a pan-Bihar pull."
The BJP hopes that references to "jungle raj" will go some way in offsetting caste loyalties which, party sources acknowledge, can tilt the scales in favour of a Lalu Prasad-Nitish alliance.
While Shah was optimistic and expansive on Bihar, he seems to have barely touched on the BJP's rout in Delhi. Javadekar spoke on the subject only in response to a question.
"The president said we had faced one defeat after a string of electoral victories in 2014. He said sometimes such things happen, but we never become arrogant after a victory or helpless after a defeat," Javadekar said.
The backdrop for the dais at the conclave said " Antyodaya hamara sankalp (We pledge to reach the last person)".
Shah called on party workers to reach out to the country's 23 lakh manual scavengers, ensure that the targeted central aid reached every one of them, work towards eradicating manual scavenging and blend their political activities with social work.
