While addressing a virtual rally for the second consecutive day for 13 Assembly constituencies in four districts, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday said he has no other interests in life except “service to people” and sought support from voters for yet another chance to “serve them”.
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Making an oblique reference to RJD chief Lalu Prasad and his wife Rabri Devi, Mr Kumar also took dig at the previous 15-years regime of pati-patni (husband-wife) and appealed people to “judge who did what for the development of the State when given a chance to swerve them”.
“I’ve no personal desire but to serve people…However, for some people their family is priority…for me whole Bihar is my family…service to people is my religion,” said Mr. Kumar while addressing a virtual rally for 13 constituencies in four districts. On Monday too, he had addressed a similar virtual rally for 11 constituencies and had said the same thing which he repeated on Tuesday
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“If given a chance now I want to make saksham Bihar, swawlambi Bihar (capable Bihar, self-reliant Bihar) and along with NDA again we’ll work for the development of Bihar. But some people keep criticising me on their advisors for publicity but I don’t seek any publicity for my work,” said Mr. Kumar in nearly an hour address of his virtual rally.
However, from Wednesday Mr Kumar will be addressing physical rallies too while, addressing a virtual rally in the evenings. On Wednesday he would be addressing physical rallies at Amarpur, Sultanganj, Tarapur and Mokama while, returning back to Patna to address another virtual rally in the evening. From Mokama, the JD(U) has fielded a farmer Rajeev Lochan Narayan Singh against RJD candidate and bahubali (strongman)-turned-politician Anant Singh. Mr Singh is currently in jail.
Mr. Kumar also reiterated his focus on part-2 of his ambitious Saat Nischay (seven resolves) programme and said if people of the State gave him another chance to serve them, he would the programme not only for development but also to review the work done by his government.
“I will also construct multi-storied buildings in cities for poor people and shelter homes for old persons,” the Chief Minister promised.
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Talking about his government’s work for the welfare of migrant workers who returned to the State during the prolonged lockdown, Mr Kumar said, “Nearly 22 lakh people had come to the State by train only and over 15 lakh of them were put in the quarantine centres set-up by the government…We spent ₹5,300 on each of them,” he claimed.
Mr Kumar also said that on national crime index Bihar today is placed at number 23 among the States. “But what was the condition when the pati-patni government was in power? People were apprehensive about coming out of their home after dusk.”
The JD(U) chief urged older people to “tell people of this generation about all this…Even those who have benefited from several welfare schemes of this government should come forward and apprise people about the difference.”
Highlighting the marked improvement in the government hospitals, Mr Kumar said, “Earlier only 39 people were visiting Primary Health Centers (PHC) in a month but now over 10,000 people are visiting them for medical assistance... If this is not development, then what it is?”
Meanwhile, RJD leader Tej Pratap Yadav, older son of RJD chief Lalu Prasad, filed his nomination papers from Hasanpur while his younger brother Tejashwi Yadav addressed a rally in support. Tej Pratap Yadav has switched from Mahua in Vaishali to Hasanpur in neighbouring Samastipur district.
The three-phased assembly elections for 243 constituencies in the state will be held on — October 28 (71 seats), November 3 (94 seats) and November 7 (78 seats). Counting of votes will take place on November 10.
