PM Modi launches Bihar poll campaign with twin rallies

Samastipur, Oct 24: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday blazed through poll-bound Bihar with back-to-back rallies in Samastipur and Begusarai districts, calling upon voters to keep at bay the opposition RJD-Congress combine led by “people out on bail” and predicting a record-breaking victory for the NDA.

The PM also drew a contrast between a “fractious” INDIA bloc and the “cohesive” BJP-led coalition, which included Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U), Lok Janshakti Party and Hindustani Awam Morcha headed by Union ministers Chirag Paswan and Jitan Ram Manjhi, respectively, besides Rashtriya Lok Morcha headed by Rajya Sabha MP Upendra Kushwaha. All the alliance partners were present at the PM’s rally in Samastipur, where he also took exception to “stealing of the epithet Jan Nayak” (people’s hero), of late used for Rahul Gandhi by Congress workers, even though it was largely associated with Bharat Ratna Karpoori Thakur, whose native village he visited before addressing the rally.