Amit Shah launches Bihar poll campaign, says NDA will get two-third majority

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday sounded the poll bugle for Bihar Assembly elections, slated for October-November, addressing a virtual rally of the party workers in the state amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Listing the achievements of Narendra Modi government in the last six years and attacking the opposition for “doing politics” over the pandemic, Shah said the NDA will get two-third majority under Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's leadership in Bihar polls.

In Bihar, the BJP is in alliance with Nitish Kumar's JD(U) and Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party.

“Bihar's growth rate was 3.9 per cent when the RJD was ruling; it reached 11.3 per cent under Nitish Kumar. The state has moved from 'lalten raj' to 'LED raj',” says the former BJP chief.

Shah, however, claimed that his virtual address is aimed at connecting with people in fight against COVID-19 and that it has nothing to do with Bihar polls.

“This rally is aimed at connecting people with 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat' campaign, BJP to have 75 such meetings,” he said.

Giving out a detailed recap of the central government's performance, Shah said the issues which no one dared to touch in the last 70 years were resolved in the first year of Modi government's second term.

“There was a time when anybody used to enter our borders, behead our soldiers and Delhi's darbar remained unaffected. Uri and Pulwama happened during our time. It was the Modi government which did the surgical strikes and airstrike,” he said.

Lauding India's defence policy, the home minister claimed that after the US and Israel, India is the only country that is able to protect its borders.

Shah said the government had taken effective measures to tackle the issues of migrant workers in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, claiming that around 1.25 crore migrants have been safely brought to their places by the Centre.

“When all arrangements were made and quarantines centres were set up, trains were run from 1st May. They were named 'Shramik trains' as a tribute to the migrants. Around 1.25 crore migrants have been safely brought to their places by the Modi govt,” he said.

Shah said 85 per cent of the cost of their travel was borne by central government while 15 per cent by the state governments.

He accused the opposition leaders of doing politics at the time of the pandemic and said they had dismissed the prime minister's efforts to unite the country in the fight against COVID-19 as a political propaganda.

Earlier,  hours before Shah's virtual rally, RJD leaders and workers staged protests, beating utensils and blowing conches against what their leader Tejashwi Yadav dubbed as the ruling party's celebration of the devastation caused by COVID-19 and the lockdown.

A large crowd gathered outside the 10, Circular Road, residence of former Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi, where she stood alongside Tejashwi and her elder son Tej Pratap Yadav and party workers—all clanging steel plates with spoons—while standing inside circles drawn on the ground to ensure social distancing.

Huge police contingents were deployed at the protest site, a stones throw from the official residence of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, and also the house of state health minister Mangal Pandey, a senior BJP leader who has been drawing flak from the opposition for alleged poor handling of the pandemic.