Modi mocks Third Front, attacks Nitish

BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on Monday launched his sharpest attack on the ‘Third Front’ and it’s ‘secularism’ plank, calling the Front “poll-eve players” who were trying to divide people for their vote banks.

Modi’s blistering attack on the ‘Third Front’ was a manifestation of increasing worries in the BJP camp about prospects of regional players playing spoilsport in states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh where there will be a multi-corned fight. The BJP has high hopes from these two states which account for 120 Lok Sabha seats.

With Lok Janshakti Party chief Ramvilas Paswan by his side 12 years after leaving the NDA over the 2002 Gujarat riots, Modi presented himself as a much amiable politician who believed that ‘peace, harmony, unity and brotherhood’ should be the foundation of any growth story.

Echoing the cause of rebuilding NDA, he said, “NDA is not just the National Democratic Alliance but National Development Alliance.”

Greeting the crowd in Bhojpuri, the Gujarat CM attacked the Nitish Kumar government on lack of power, unemployment and women’s security issues.

Drawing upon history and regional problems, Modi challenged the Bihar CM who has assiduously built a constituency of women over the years. Modi said a majority of Bihar’s women still had no access to toilets. “Only 23% houses in Bihar have toilets while just 16% have electricity. When a house gets electricity supply it becomes news,” he said. He went on to promise a house for all by 2022 if NDA came to power.

Modi, whose last Bihar rally in October 2013 saw bomb blasts, also accused Kumar of being soft on the issue of fighting terror. “Due to vote bank politics, the state government is not prepared to act tough against militants who are finding it easy to get hiding places in Bihar,” he said.