New Delhi: Before the second period of voting in Bihar, senior Congress head P Chidambaram on Sunday flayed Prime Minister Narendra Modi and asserted that the NDA leadership was not discussing the “real issues” during campaigning in Bihar.
The former Finance Minister asked, “If you were a voter in Bihar, do they tell you about unemployment, jobs, new industries, MSP for food grains, crop insurance, flood relief, women’s safety, etc?”
He included, “The answer is ZILCH… nothing. You are being asked to vote for the NDA on a message that contains NOTHING.”
He said that during his election rallies in Bihar on Sunday, Modi discussed “… in Bihar, there is a double-motor government while on the opposite side are two crown princes”.
Chidambaram included, “The PM also invoked the significant deities in Bihar — Chhath (the sun god) and Ganga — to seek votes for the NDA. At Bagaha, Modi raised the problems of construction of Ram temple, scrapping of Article 370 and the CAA (sic).”
Modi on Sunday blamed certain opposition parties for getting involved in “scaremongering” on the issues of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and annulment of Article 370 of the Constitution, aside from the Ram Temple issue.
The Prime Minister asserted at a public rally at Bagaha in West Champaran district, “When the CAA came, they (opposition) spread the lie that the citizenship of many people will be taken away. Today, about a year has passed. Has any Indian lost his citizenship? They have constantly shown their selfishness by just lying or scaremongering.”
243-seat Bihar Assembly elections are set to be conducted in three stages, out of which polling in the initial stage was held on October 28. After the second period of polling for 94 seats on November 3, rest 78 constituencies will go to poll on November 7. The tallying of the votes is expected to be on November 10.
On Saturday, former union minister P Chidambaram also said that the opposition parties must believe that (BJP) Bharatiya Janata Party can be defeated and the forthcoming Bihar polls would hopefully prove the same.
Pointing to the assembly elections and by-elections held in the nation since the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the Congress head brought up that the BJP’s winning rate had definitely reduced.
