As PM Modi Praises Nitish-led Bihar’s ‘Double-engine’ Govt in Lalu’s Bastion, Opposition Has Some Questions

The opposition parties in Bihar hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his “NDA’ double-engine government” remark, which he made during one of his rallies in the poll-bound state on Sunday. The Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Party lashed out at the PM, dubbing the Bihar government as “the one who deceives”.

PM Modi, who was addressing a rally in Chapra, Lalu Prasad Yadav’s bastion, said that the “NDA’s double-engine government is committed to development, but double-double Yuvraj (Congress and RJD) are only concerned about protecting their respective thrones”.

Soon, Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala took to Twitter to attack the Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government and invoked the PM’s old comments where he had mentioned that the CM suffers from “18th century mindset”.

“Respected Modi, in 2015 election, you had said Nitish Kumar had ’18th century’ mindset. But, today, you called his government ‘double-engine’. The truth is, this is the government of ‘double-deception’. One is jumlebaz and the other one decieves. Bihar voters will give you both a fair treatment,” Surjewala’s tweet read.

Meanwhile, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav berated the NDA government on issues of unemployment and a high crime rate in the state of Bihar.

“PM Modi did not say why the unemployment rate is 46.6 per cent in Bihar, despite the ‘double-engine government’. What is the reason behind migration in the state. According to the NCRB data, Bihar leads in the crime rate. As per, NITI Aayog, the state still lags behind as far as health and education is concerned,” he said.

Modi berated the RJD-Congress combine in Bihar, calling it an alliance of “double-double yuvraj” (two crown princes) whose sole concern was to protect their “respective thrones”.

“On the one hand, there is development brought in by the double engine government of the NDA. On the other there are these double-double yuvraj with the sole agenda of saving their thrones,” he said referring to Tejashwi Yadav and Rahul Gandhi who have shared the stage during elections quite a few times. “One of them failed in UP a few years ago and is now lending his support to the ‘yuvraj of jungle raj’ in Bihar.

They are going to fail here again,” Modi said recalling the short-lived SP-Congress alliance which was trounced in the assembly polls of Uttar Pradesh in 2017. In a bid to strike a chord with the state’s women voters, the prime minister said, “My mothers need not worry about whether they would be able to afford Chhath festivities a few weeks from now. Do remember this son of yours is sitting in Delhi. He will take care of all your needs”.

The prime minister also referred to a video, which has gone viral on the social media, where an old village woman snaps at a journalist who poses her the question “what has Modi done for you?. “I was impressed when the woman fluently spoke about the welfare measures undertaken by our government and hurled the counter question when Modi has done so much for us, do you expect us to vote for you and not for him? She expressed the sentiment shared by most voters of Bihar,” Modi said.