Tejashwi Yadav on Saturday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah of neglecting Bihar while promoting their home state of Gujarat, seeking to project the upcoming Assembly election as a battle to wrest the state back from “outsiders”.
A day after Modi had launched his Bihar campaign with two rallies, Tejashwi accused him of trying to “defame” a state that had received much less development funds than Gujarat.
“Modiji and Amit Shah will set up Gift City, bullet trains, semiconductor factories and SEZs in Gujarat, build the largest stadium in Modiji’s name, hold investor meetings, forcibly relocate major global companies from Maharashtra to Gujarat, and take the Prime Ministers and Presidents of other countries to Gujarat,” Tejashwi, the Mahagathbandhan’s candidate for chief minister, told reporters.
“They will take all the budget for education, healthcare, sports, and infrastructure meant for Bihar and divert it to Gujarat. It has been 11 years of a ‘double-engine’ government (in Bihar); Modiji should tell us what he has given Bihar and what he has given Gujarat in these 11 years.”
Tejashwi’s tirade came on a day Shah, the BJP’s chief poll strategist, addressed three rallies in Bihar, telling voters that an RJD win would revive the Lalu-Rabri-era “Jungle Raj”.
At Khagaria in north Bihar, Shah likened the five-party NDA to the “Pandavas”, promising “stability” and “good governance”.
“Only one industry flourished in Bihar during Lalu-Rabri rule — that of kidnapping, extortion and dacoity. Do you want a return of the Jungle Raj?” he said.
Tejashwi’s portrayal of the election as a Bihar vs Gujarat battle appears to be his way of countering the efforts by Modi and Shah to revive memories of the lawlessness during
RJD rule.
“Modiji factory lagayenge Gujarat me, victory chahiye Bihar me (Modi will set up factories in Gujarat but wants a victory in Bihar),” he has been saying at his rallies.
“But this is not going to happen. We are Biharis, we don’t need to be scared of baharis (outsiders). If Laluji didn’t fear Modiji, will his son?... Two people from Gujarat are running Bihar. Will a Bihari govern Bihar or will an outsider?”
To underline the “Bihari vs bahari” binary, Tejashwi has been expressing sympathy for chief minister Nitish Kumar, claiming that Modi and Shah are out to snatch the top post from him.
“I feel sad for my uncle (Nitish). Amit Shah has made it clear that he (Nitish) is not the NDA’s candidate for chief minister. Shah has said in an interview that the next chief minister will be elected by the new MLAs,” he told a rally on Saturday.
While sympathising with Nitish in his twilight years, the 35-year-old Tejashwi has been projecting himself as a “new-generation” Bihari politician who should be given a chance to govern.
“As a Bihari, I am pained that Bihar is the poorest state in India. Two decades of NDA rule in the state and 11 years of Modi government at the Centre have failed our state,” he told a crowd in Muzaffarpur. “Give me just 20 months and I promise to do what they have not been able to do in 20 years.”
Shah has been asking voters not to believe Tejashwi’s promises. “I was listening to Lalu’s son talking about loot and murder in Bihar. This is like ‘Sau chuhe khake billi Haj ko chali (The cat goes on pilgrimage after killing 100 mice)’,” Shah told a rally in Khagaria.
