The BJP in Bihar finally got its much-sought “Modi touch” on Saturday evening as the party’s national poll campaign committee chief and Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi directly spoke with 1,500 BJP workers via tele-conference from Gandhinagar for the first time and injected new enthusiasm in the BJP’s Bihar unit.
In a direct message to Bihar’s ruling JD(U), which dumped the BJP from the state government and quit the NDA on June 16, Mr Modi told a keenly listening audience of BJP workers that Bihar’s voters would teach a lesson to the JD(U) for its “betrayal” of the mandate they gave to the NDA.
Mr Modi, whose continuous elevation within the BJP and probable projection as the saffron party’s prime ministerial candidate was the reason behind the JD(U) parting ways, divided his one-hour interaction in attacking the Congress and the JD(U), tough he did not take the name of JD(U) stalwart and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar or his party.
“The country today is witnessing an anti-Congress wave like in 1974. Those who betrayed the people’s mandate for the NDA in Bihar, like in 1974, will be taught a lesson,” said the saffron party icon, who was prevented from visiting Bihar for poll campaigning for several years reportedly due to JD(U) strongman and chief minister Nitish Kumar’s resistance.
As he spoke with BJP workers from Bihar’s districts and panchayats selected for the teleconference, Mr Modi displayed an amazingly meticulous knowledge about the Assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies in Bihar’s districts and urged BJP workers to ensure the party’s victory there.
Mr Modi asked Anil Chaudhary, a BJP functionary from Banka district: “What is the Maoist problem like these days in your district that is on the Bihar-Jharkhand border?”
Speaking in his rich baritone about the “murderous price-rise and rampant misgovernance” in the country and listening with patience to Bihar’s BJP leaders and workers, Mr Modi displayed the cool confidence of a future Prime Minister. Mr Modi pointed at the historic links between Gujarat and Bihar and stressed the need for providing “sensitive, reliable governance to people across the country”.
Senior Bihar Bharatiya Janata Party leaders like former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi, former health minister Ashwani Chaubey, state BJP chief Mangal Pandey and his deputy Sanjay Mayukh also spoke with Mr Modi.
The Gujarat chief minister said he would visit Bihar for the BJP’s “Hunkar rally” in October.