New Delhi, October 20: Senior leader L K Advani staying away from campaigning in the minority-dominated Seemanchal region of Bihar, which goes to polls in phase-I on October 21, was part of BJP’s well thought out strategy to keep JD-U in good humour in the aftermath of the Ayodhya verdict and an advertisement controversy involving Gujarat CM Narendra Modi. But when he finally hit the campaign trail on Tuesday, he did present the Gujarat model of development before Bihar voters.
While not mentioning Modi in his speech at Motihari, Muzaffarpur and Darbhanga, which go to polls on October 24 in phase-II, Advani said BJP governments had performed everywhere. “Take the example of Gujarat that has recorded the highest GDP,” he said at Motihari, adding that the BJP intended good governance and was not power hungry.
Advani, who was the first BJP leader to assuage Bihar CM Nitish Kumar’s frayed tempers following the advertisement controversy during the BJP national executive at Patna, on Tuesday said Nitish was “an excellent administrator who had proved his worth as Union railway minister in the Vajpayee government”. Advani was reciprocating Nitish’s claim a couple days ago that there was nothing amiss between the coalition partners in the run-up to the Assembly elections.
The JD-U, on its part on Tuesday, did not read too much into Advani’s Gujarat growth reference. Its national spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP, Shivanand Tiwari, said, “Advaniji is only praising Bihar government by likening it to Gujarat. Advaniji represents Gandhinagar in Parliament and there is a BJP government in Gujarat, there is nothing unnatural in a senior BJP leader referring to Gujarat GDP.”
Advani took on the UPA government on a wide range of issues — from not reacting to J&K CM’s controversial statement on Kashmir to not reining in corruption despite ruling the country for such a long time. “I am surprised the Centre did not respond to the J&K CM’s remark that Kashmir acceded to and has not merged with India,” he said.
Joining the war of words over Central funds to Bihar, Advani sought to know if it was “Congress money”. “It is formula-driven assistance to a state and the Centre has no business to brag about it for political mileage,” he said.
BJP manifesto: Goat for BPL family
The BJP’s election manifesto released on Tuesday announced direct cash transfer to beneficiaries of several poverty alleviation schemes. BJP leader and Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi, while releasing the manifesto, promised a goat to each BPL family if the NDA returned to power. Like the JD-U, the BJP promised to set up a commission for economically backward upper caste people. Modi said the PDS system would be made more transparent by bringing in self-help groups. The party promised grants for gaushalas and said the Crop Insurance Scheme would be monitored at the panchayat level, instead of block level.
———Agencies