Patna: The streets of Patna witnessed a different scene when the “ghar me ghuss kar marenge” dialogue of PM Modi was shouted repeatedly on Saturday. BJP president Amit Shah’s roadshow was a sort of show of strength in the stronghold of the BJP rebel and actor-turned-Congress candidate from Patna Saheb Shatrughan Sinha. The roadshow started from the residence of Sinha in Kadamkuan and moved to Udyog Bhawan, covering a distance of over a km. BJP leaders claimed the roadshow was aimed at “showing the aukat (worth) of Sinha in his home turf”, as the roadshow passed through the streets of the actor’s house and crossed to nala road junction, Khaderan Singh Marg, Bari Path, Bakerganj and Thakurbari Road before terminating at the Udyog Bhawan.
Sinha is pitted against Union law and justice minister Ravishankar Prasad. He reacted sharply, “It is unfortunate an outsider (Amit Shah) has come to show my aukat (value) to Bihari Babu, the local candidate.” Prasad and Shah campaigned together on the entire stretch. Bihar Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi, parliamentarian CP Thakur, BJP MLAs from Patna, Nand Kishore Yadav, Arun Kumar Sinha, Nitin Navin and Sanjiv Chaurasia, among others rode the makeshift chariot, Vijay Rath decorated with saffron flags. Local JD-U leaders too joined the campaign.
Earlier, Shah went to Mahila Charkha Samiti in the same locality and garlanded the statue of Jayaprakash Narayan. The BJP chief said he has come to Patna to seek votes for Prasad. The roadshow organised is a commercial one, as shops and establishments of garments, utensils, toys and furnitures dotted the road. In the residential locality of Kadam Kuan, where Sinha resides, hundreds of eminent lawyers, bureaucrats, university teachers and preofessors, all from Kayastha community to which both Prasad and Sinha belong, have their houses. JP Narayan, who too was incidently from Kayastha caste, had his residence at Mahila Chakrka Samiti. Kayasthas constitute about five lakh of the total electorate in the Patna Saheb constitutency.
