‘65-volt jhatka’: Modi targets RJD, Congress in Bihar

Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrapped up his Bihar poll campaign, claiming voters gave I.N.D.I.A bloc a “65-volt jhatka” in phase one. Confident of an NDA win, he attacked the RJD and Congress over corruption, migration, and “katta raj”

Sitamarhi/Bettiah: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday claimed that people have given the opposition I.N.D.I.A bloc a “65-volt jhatka” in the first phase of Assembly elections in Bihar, and now they are spending “sleepless nights”.

Modi wound up his extensive campaign for Assembly polls in Bihar, where he cautioned voters that if the RJD-led opposition came to power, it would order them to hold their “hands up” by placing a “katta” on their head.

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The PM seemed confident of an NDA win, claiming that the high turnout in the first phase was in favour of the ruling coalition.

“You have given a 65-volt shock to the opposition which is now having sleepless nights,” said Modi, referring to the 65.09 per cent turnout registered across 121 assembly segments where voting was held on November 6.

He urged the electors to “break the record of the first phase on November 11” and ensure that the NDA not just wins “all the seats but established a lead in every booth”.

Modi, who addressed a total of 14 rallies across the State, besides a roadshow in Patna, packed in a timespan of less than one month, reflected on his campaign at his final election meeting in Bettiah, where he also promised to be back again “for swearing in ceremony of a new NDA government”.

“I had started my campaign by visiting the birthplace of Bharat Ratna Karpoori Thakur, and today I am bringing it to a close at the land where Bapu Gandhi transformed into the Mahatma”, said Modi, in West Champaran district, recalling his first rally at Samastipur.

“My campaign ends today (Saturday) but canvassing will continue tomorrow. But voters’ job begins on the day of polling. I will come again for the swearing in of an NDA government,” said the Prime Minister.

Modi, whom Chief Minister Nitish Kumar accompanied only at his inaugural rally in Samastipur, providing some cannon fodder to the opposition, showered encomiums on the JD(U) supremo for having put an end to “jungle raj”.

The PM, who has popularised “katta” as a metaphor for the RJD’s alleged high-handedness, charged the main opposition party with having pointed a country-made, unlicensed pistol at the head of the Congress when the ally was refusing to back Tejashwi Yadav as the Chief Ministerial candidate.

Asserting that the people of Bihar “do not want a katta sarkaar”, Modi voiced alarm over the RJD’s poll campaign, in which children came on stage declaring that they wished to become “rangdaar” (street bullies), armed with unlicensed pistols and double barrel guns (dunaali)”.

“People are not voting for jungle raj wallahs because they know if these people come to power they will hold a katta at the head of the public with the order to hold hands up. People of Bihar do not want hands up but startups, which only the NDA can facilitate,” he said.

Although the Prime Minister refrained from mentioning leaders of the RJD and the Congress by names, he made ample references to “royal families” running these, “one most corrupt in the country” and the other “most corrupt in Bihar”.

Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi was lampooned as a “Congress ke naamdaar” who was “practising drowning”, a tongue in cheek reference to Gandhi’s jumping into a muddy pond last week to interact with fishermen.

Gandhi’s allegation of “vote theft” was dismissed as “net practice for finding excuse, following a defeat in Bihar”, while his criticism of Modi’s aborted plan to take a dip in Yamuna on Chhath was called an “insult” to the most popular festival of the state.

The PM, whose penultimate rally was at Sitamarhi, the birthplace of goddess Sita, also deftly used the Hindutva card to question the I.N.D.I.A bloc’s pro-deprived caste stance.

He alleged that reluctance of I.N.D.I.A bloc leaders to visit Ayodhya, which housed not just the Ram temple but also shrines dedicated to Maharshi Valmiki, Mata Shabri and Nishad Raj was on account of their “hatred for Dalits and backwards”.

The opposition coalition was also repeatedly charged by the PM with “protecting infiltrators”, driving whom out was, according to the government at the Centre, the aim of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls that was completed in the state days before polls were announced.

The opposition has sought to repudiate the charge citing that no infiltrator was detected during the SIR exercise and that “ghuspaithya” was a term used as a dog whistle to target Muslims, who are nearly 17 per cent of Bihar’s total population and have a sizeable presence in the Seemanchal region.

Modi’s speeches during the assembly polls also had references to the abrogation of Article 370 and Operation Sindoor, and the opposition was charged with “capitulation before religious extremists” for not supporting the government on Triple Talaq and Waqf laws.

He also touched upon the problem of migration, which has been made a major poll issue by Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor.

The PM promised that in its next innings in power, the NDA will ensure “sons of Bihar get employed on the home soil and make their motherland proud”.

Modi had also been chuffed at the sight of women turning up in large numbers at rallies and at polling booths on the day of voting.

“Our mothers and sisters have been the worst sufferers of jungle raj,” Modi said at many of his rallies and remarked that high turn out of “Matri Shakti” meant they had “built a fortress around polling booths, to keep jungle raj at bay”.