BJP schedules 17 rallies in 6 days; Lalu, Nitish had mocked PM for withdrawing from campaign .
New Delhi : The temperature in the hotly-contested Bihar elections is set to rise by another few notches with Prime Minister Narendra Modi hitting the dust from Sunday after a ten-day break during the holy Navratras. The renewed carpet-bombing of Modi”s rallies comes after a virulent attack by chief minister Nitish Kumar and RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav who accused the PM of withdrawing from the Bihar campaign to avoid blame for an ”imminent” defeat in the crucial polls. In a series of tweets, Nitish Kumar had mocked at Modi for disappearing from the Bihar scene. Lalu Prasad and his son Tejaswi Yadav had also launched a similar attack, both online and in public.
Modi would be addressing at least seventeen rallies in six days in areas going to polls in the third and fourth phases. The renewed campaign of the PM would start with four rallies on Sunday and go on without break for three consecutive days. Altogether Modi is likely to address about two dozen more rallies before campaign winds up for the Bihar assembly polls. Besides replying to the attack of the Nitish-Lalu combine, the PM”s campaign is also aimed at boosting the sagging morale of the BJP cadres and giving a leg-up to the alliance partners offended by the Haryana incidents.
The BJP had initially indicated that Modi would address 13 rallies spread over the third, fourth and fifth phase constituencies. However, the revised schedule of at least two dozen rallies shows that the PM and the BJP are not ready to leave anything to chance in the do-or-die battle for Bihar. Modi remains the party”s best bet in an election where the BJP is being predicted to be lagging behind the Grand Alliance of Lalu-Nitish. While the party was already in a disadvantageous position due to a smaller caste bracket, the provocative statements by the Hindutva fringe and the cases of atrocities on Dalits have further diminished its prospects. When asked what was the party”s biggest strategic strength in Bihar, BJP chief Amit Shah had candidly said ”the leadership of Narendra Modi”.
