PM Modi pens open letter, pitches for Nitish govt to ensure Bihar’s all-round development

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said it was a matter of pride that the focus in Bihar polls has been on development.
PM Narendra Modi (Photo | PTI)
PM Narendra Modi (Photo | PTI)

NEW DELHI:  In the face of a stiff challenge posed by the Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance), led by RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav, to CM Nitish Kumar’s bid to bag the fourth straight mandate in Bihar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday wrote an open letter to the voters, urging them to support the JDU chief to ensure all-round development of the state. 

With ground reports suggesting voter fatigue with Kumar, Modi has sought to lend his weight to the CM to fend off the challenge of Yadav, who has sought to pull crowd by highlighting the economic woes to polarise the youth against the NDA. “I’m assured of the development roadmap of Bihar.

I need a Nitish Kumar government in Bihar so that the development journey doesn’t derail in the state and there are no roadblocks to schemes,” Modi wrote in an open letter addressed to the people of Bihar.
The NDA’s pitch on the pre-2005 Bihar was reiterated in the open letter.

Modi wrote that infrastructure and law and order situations are preconditions for development. “Reconstruction is impossible in times of anarchy,” wrote Modi in an apparent thrust on the NDA’s pitch of “Jungle Raj” against the Mahagathbandhan. 

The BJP is hoping that the ruling alliance can tide over the Grand Alliance challenge, which is seemingly buoyed by the consolidation of the Muslim-Yadav vote base, by PM’s pitch on development with a “double-engine” government, a refrain for the alliance in power at the Centre and the state. 

Modi also argued that Bihar is fast emerging a base for the gas-based economy (suggesting the gas pipeline grid), CNG driven transport system, airports (Darbhanga to be operational soon). He said the big-ticket infrastructure projects would fuel the next stage of development of the state while reminding people of the implementation of Centrally sponsored welfare schemes.     

‘BJP lacks a credible face’

Political analyst B K Pathak said as the BJP lacked a credible and well-known face, it was only using Nitish to shore up its own prospects. “The election fight is mainly between the BJP and the RJD as only these two parties have a traditional vote bank, the BJP of upper castes and the RJD of Muslims and Yadavs.”

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