PRIME Minister Narendra Modi on Monday claimed that the INDIA bloc’s CM candidate Tejashwi Yadav was trying to “hide the sins” of his father Lalu Prasad, relegating his pictures to the corner of RJD’s poll posters. The PM made the remark at a rally in Katihar district, where he did not mention the father-son duo by their names but used the expression “jungle raj ke yuvraaj” (crown prince of lawlessness) to point towards Yadav. “What is sin he is hiding by not having the pictures of his own father, whom you claim to be such a tall leader and was a CM for years, on RJD posters? Perhaps it is because he has become aware that the big leader carries the baggage of jungle raj,” he alleged. The PM also alleged that while the RJD was controlled by “the most corrupt family in Bihar”, its ally Congress was run by “the most corrupt family in the country”.

 

In an attempt to drive a wedge between the two allies, Modi reiterated that the Congress agreed to name Yadav the CM candidate when the RJD “put a katta (country-made gun) on its head”, and claimed that the grand old party was trying its best to ensure that its ally was drubbed in the Assembly polls. “Congress leaders are distancing themselves from promises made in the joint manifesto, saying the RJD should offer an explanation. They have been inviting CMs of Telangana and Tamil Nadu, known for deriding Biharis, to the state with the hope that it will lead to a resentment against their ally as well, causing it to lose the elections,” he alleged.

 

Earlier, addressing a rally in Saharsa, Modi charged the RJD with having stalled development projects in Bihar by putting pressure on the Congress-led UPA Government at the Centre to “avenge” its ouster from power in the State in 2005. “The RJD was sharing power at the Centre when it was voted out of power in Bihar in 2005. Projects like the Kosi Mahasetu had been sanctioned by the Atal Behari Vajpayee Government. So enraged was RJD by Nitish Kumar forming a new Govt in the State that it put pressure on Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi and stalled all such projects in Bihar,” he alleged. “The RJD can never understand the sufferings of the people of the Kosi region, which were alleviated through the construction of the bridge. We are also working on interlinking of rivers. The NDA manifesto has also put forth a blueprint on flood control,” he alleged.