PATNA: Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi on Saturday alleged that the Narendra Modi government is controlling everything in Bihar as even Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has no say in the state’s affairs.
Addressing an election meeting at Bachhwara in Begusarai district, Priyanka said, “You should not remain in confusion that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is running a double-engine government. There is no double engine. There is only one engine that is being run from Delhi. Not only you (people), even Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is not being heard. Nitish Ji is not getting respect. Everything is being operated from the Centre.”
She accused the NDA of propagating fake nationalism to win elections and divert people’s attention, accusing the ruling alliance of “playing divisive politics”.
“What do top NDA leaders talk about when they come here? Either they talk about 20 years in the future or the past. They criticise Nehru ji, Indira ji, but they do not raise issues like unemployment, migration,” she added. “Let me also talk about the past. Who set up the factories? Who established IITs and IIMs? The answer is the Congress and Nehru ji,” she said. The Congress MP alleged that the BJP resorted to “stealing votes” as they failed to distract people from real issues by “indulging in divisive politics”.
“They first divided people, went to war, but couldn’t divert attention from real issues, so they are now stealing votes. As many as 65 lakh names were deleted from the voter list through the special intensive revision (SIR) in Bihar, encroaching on people’s rights,” Priyanka said.
She said Bihar contributed so much to the country’s growth, but the state “was not developed as it should have been,” cautioning people not to get fooled by promises of the Bihar government. “The PM has handed over big PSUs to his corporate friends,” she alleged. Taking a swipe at NDA over it manifesto launch, the Congress MP claimed that the ruling coalition had wrapped up its press conference in “just 26 seconds”.
The Congress leader also charged the BJP with opposing the caste survey in Bihar,saying the report of which was published while the grand old party was sharing power in the state.
