Bihar polls: Nadda’s rally in Gaya is first in Covid time

GAYA/PATNA: BJP chief JP Nadda, while addressing the first physical poll rally amid the Covid-19

pandemic

, on Sunday said Bihar needs the combined leadership of PM Narendra Modi and CM Nitish Kumar to maintain its momentum of development.



This came even as BJP on Sunday retained 17 of its 19 sitting MLAs and announced 46 candidates for the second phase of Bihar assembly polls scheduled on November 3. It has also fielded its candidates in Gobindganj and

Lalganj

, the two seats won by LJP in 2015. The second phase of the elections is to be held in 94 constituencies.

Addressing the maiden poll rally of the NDA ahead of the Bihar assembly polls from October 28 to November 7, Nadda said, “Modi hain toh mumkin hai, Nitish hain toh Bihar aage badhega (Everything is possible if Modi is there and Bihar will progress because Nitish is here).” Candidates of all 10 assembly constituencies in Gaya were present during the rally. Nadda said those (RJD) who came to power due to

Loknayak Jayaprakash Narayan

’s fight against Congress, have ended up joining hands with that party. He said Bihar was in the safe hands of Nitish as development has found new dimensions in the state under his regime. Similarly, “BJP, under Modi, seeks vote on the basis of its report card of development,” he said in Gaya.

Targeting the opposition RJD, he reminded the people of the “lawlessness” in Bihar during the 15-year-dispensation of Lalu Prasad and his wife Rabri Devi.

Nadda, who had spent his childhood in Patna, said its Fraser Road had shops like D Lall and Sons and restaurants like May Fair. “When I enquired recently, people told me that the shops closed down due to lawlessness in Lalu era,” he said. “The busiest of crossroads used to get deserted by 6pm and doctors were requested by their families not to leave home for attending patients out of fear of the kidnap-for-ransom incidents,” he said, and asked people if they would like such an era to return to Bihar.

In the list released on Sunday, BJP replaced sitting Chanpatia MLA Prakash Rai with Uma Kant Singh and Amnour MLA Shatrughan Tiwari of Saran with Krishna Kumar Mantu. It retained Satish Kumar Yadav, from Raghopur in Vaishali district, against the grand alliance’s CM face Tejashwi Prasad Yadav from RJD.