Bihar Elections: Rahul Gandhi, Narendra Modi Attack Each Other, JSP Worker Found Dead
Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Oct 30: As political leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi held multiple election rallies in Bihar attacking each other, Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj Party had a sad day on Thursday when one of its supporter was found dead under mysterious circumstances in Patna’s Mokama.
The police said Dular Chand Yadav died while he was campaigning for JSP’s candidate Piyush Priyadarshi. “The exact cause of the incident is not known yet, as the body has not been handed over to the police,” Patna SSP Kartikeya K Sharma said.
“Police received information that a supporter of a candidate died during the campaign in the Mokama Taal area. The exact cause of the incident is not known yet, as the body has not been handed over to the police. Whether he died due to bullet injuries or it was an accidental death can only be known when police get the body,” Mr Sharma said.
Campaigning for the Congress, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha launched a sharp attack on Mr Modi, comparing him to former PM Indira Gandhi, citing the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War, while the prime minister in turn accused Mr Gandhi of “insulting” Chhathi Maiya for votes.
Addressing a public gathering in Nalanda, Mr Gandhi said during the 1971 war, Indira Gandhi did not fear or bow before the United States, whereas Prime Minister Modi neither has a “vision” nor the “ability” to stand up to U.S. President Donald Trump over America’s assertion that it stopped the India-Pakistan conflict.
“During the 1971 war in the Bangladesh struggle, America sent its aircraft and navy to intimidate and threaten India. Indira Gandhi, who was the Prime Minister, then told the US “we are not afraid of your navy, do what you must, we will do what we must,” Mr Gandhi said.
Mr Gandhi also alleged that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was formed through ‘vote chori.’ The Congress leader also said PM Modi and the NDA were “hell-bent on destroying the Constitution, framed by Bhimrao Ambedkar.” “Amit Shah said no land is available in Bihar, but plots were given to an industrial house at throwaway prices,” claimed Rahul Gandhi. He also promised that the “world’s best university” would come up in Nalanda if the INDIA bloc was voted to power in Bihar.
Earlier in the day, PM Modi, addressing the election rally in Muzaffarpur, criticised the Congress and the RJD for “insulting Chhathi Maiya for votes”. He said, “We are trying to get a UNESCO heritage tag for the Chhath festival.” At a rally in Lakhisarai, the union home minister Amit Shah slammed Congress over the Chhath issue and said the INDIA bloc would be “wiped out” in the Bihar polls as people would “take revenge” on them over alleged remarks about PM Modi’s mother and goddess Chhathi Maiya.
The BJP president JP Nadda asserted that the development of Bihar has acquired pace under the NDA government which brought the state out of an era of darkness into light. Addressing a rally in Bakhtiyarpur assembly constituency of Nalanda district, he also claimed that the RJD and its ally Congress were not concerned about people’s welfare.
“Before 2005, Bihar was living in an era of darkness, but now there is light all around. Bihar has progressed from being a BIMARU state to a leading state, and it was made possible through people’s power to vote,” said Mr Nadda, also a Union minister.
Attacking the incumbent NDA government in Bihar, the Congress alleged that crimes against women have reached their peak under the “trouble-engine NDA government” in Bihar and asked what moral right did Mr Modi have to seek votes from them in the State. The Opposition party also claimed that the people of Bihar have made up their minds for change and resolved to uproot this government through their votes in the Assembly polls.
The Congress general secretary in-charge of communications Jairam Ramesh said that Prime Minister Modi is appealing to the women of the State to vote for him in his election speeches from the soil of Bihar. “The truth, however, is that in Bihar, under the trouble-engine government, the State’s daughters are utterly helpless. Crimes against women, including sexual violence, have reached their peak,” Mr Ramesh said in a post on X.
Mr Modi on the other hand hit out at the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) for enabling “jungle raaj” in Bihar during their tenure, highlighting that women and children have been the “biggest victims” of that time. Remembering the time of “terror and lawlessness,” PM Modi recalled a 30-year-old case where a woman, who was the wife of an IAS officer, was raped multiple times allegedly by “RJD goons” and wrote down her harrowing experience in a letter to then Governor.
“The biggest victims of jungle raaj has been women and children. Today when the youth realizes what happened to the wife of an IAS officer they will be shocked. This is the time of 1998, the wife of a Dalit IAS officer had written to Governor and exposed that she was raped by RJD goons for multiple days,” PM Modi said while addressing a rally in Bihar’s Chhapra.
