Narendra Modi woos OBCs, plays development card in poll rallies

JAMUI/GAYA: PM Narendra Modi opened his Bihar campaign playing the OBC and development cards while keeping his attack focussed on the Congress. He, however, largely stayed away from the Hindutva rhetoric he raised on Monday, making only a passing mention in his rallies on Tuesday.
Addressing a gathering at Kaira in Jamui, a Maoist stronghold which goes to polls on April 11, he lashed out at the Congress for shedding crocodile’s tears for the OBCs while doing little for the community.
Modi claimed credit for giving constitutional status to the National Commission for Other Backward Classes ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in Bihar. “The NDA government not only accorded constitutional status to the OBC panel, but also appointed Prof Bhagwan Lal Sahni of Muzaffarpur in north Bihar its first chairman,” he said.
The formation of the Commission for Backward Classes assumes significance ahead of the polls as EBCs and OBCs form a sizable block in the four Lok Sabha constituencies going to the polls in the first phase of the election on April 11.
Aware of his rally venue’s proximity to Maoist activities where a group of heavily armed extremists had hijacked a train in the neighbouring Lakhisarai district in August 2017, Modi said his NDA was making all out efforts to enthuse the youths who had joined Naxal outfits to return to the main stream of the society.
However, the PM did not let go off the BJP’s pet issue of national security slamming the Congress and the RJD for allegedly keeping mum on national security. “They were trying to demoralise the brave jawans and talking on the issue as if they were spokespersons of Pakistan government,” Modi alleged.
He also sought clarification from the Congress on its ally and National Conference leader Omer Abdullah’s demand for a separate Prime Minister for J&K. “Will the citizens of the country accept two prime ministers within the country,” he asked.
Referring to the Pulwama incident in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed in a suicide attack, he said the Army retaliated by carrying out air strikes on the terrorist camps inside Pakistan.
Modi also accused the Congress of using Dalits and the Backwards as vote bank and blamed the Congress for misusing the name of Baba Saheb Bhim Rao Ambedkar. The NDA has fielded Chirag Paswan and Chandan Kumar from Jamui and Nawada Lok Sabha seats, respectively.
At the second leg of his campaign in Gaya, the PM stuck to the Nitish government’s development initiative in the international pilgrimage city praising the Bihar CM for his work.
The CM virtually set the agenda for the election meet in his brief speech skipping contentious issues and concentrating on the development work done by his government and the contribution of the central government in the smooth execution of the development schemes in the state.