Nitish to Modi: Bihar can be governed by a Bihari only, not an outsider

Mangalore Today News Network

Patna, September 29, 2015: In a bid to make the most of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s decision to refrain from announcing its chief ministerial candidate, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his alliance partner Lalu Prasad have begun playing the ’local-versus-outsider’ card ahead of the crucial Bihar Assembly polls.

 

Addressing a series of rallies in Samastipur and other districts in the course of his poll campaign, Nitish said that only a Bihari could ensure welfare of his state.

"Bihar can be governed by a Bihari only, not an outsider," the chief minister said in an apparent reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has been projected as the main campaigner of the BJP.

Nitish said that the Gujarat model of governance could not be imposed on Bihar which had its own model of inclusive growth. "The BJP is trying to divert the state from its path of development," he said. "Bihar has been progressing fast in the past 10 years on its own agenda of growth with justice."

The chief minister said that the prime minister made tall claims to get votes in the Lok Sabha elections but the people of Bihar would not be duped by his words now. "Unlike the prime minister, I believe in working, not talking," he said.

Accusing the Modi government of having meted out discriminatory treatment to Bihar, Nitish said that he had served the people Bihar to the best of his ability over the past 10 years and had come to seek his wages for his work.

He said that the prime minister had remembered Bihar only when the state elections were around the corner.

Nitish, the chief ministerial candidate of the grand alliance of the JD(U), RJD and the Congress, said that he had made his seven-point resolve to accelerate development in Bihar in the next five years.

"We will need `2.70 lakh crore to implement our programmes but the BJP leaders are asking from where we will get the money," he said. "Let me tell them that I may go for begging, if needed, for the development of Bihar but I would never seek funds from Modi ji."

Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad also said that the Biharis had enough self-respect, self-confidence and talent and they did not need to import any leader from Gujarat.

Taking a dig at the BJP for not announcing its chief ministerial candidate ahead of the Assembly elections, he said that BJP leaders from Bihar should get themselves exported to Gujarat instead of importing anybody from there.

On Sunday, Lalu had taken a dig at the prime minister’s ongoing visit to the United States, saying he had gone there to look out for a chief ministerial candidate among the NRIs.

 

 

Courtesy: Indiatoday