Nitish's PM ambitions led to collapse of BJP-JD(U) alliance: Modi

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on Monday launched a personal attack on Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar over his "PM dreams" and also hit out at the Third Front during his second rally in the state.

Addressing a huge rally at the Rangbhumi grounds, about 5 km north of Purnia on the eastern border of Bihar with Bengal, Modi greeted the crowd in the local dialect of Maithili.

"They all dream of being prime ministers. But tell me, where were they when there were riots in Assam and Uttar Pradesh, quake in Gujarat, when soldiers were being decapitated at the front and when people were dying of floods in the Kosi," he asked.

Modi's last rally in the state was in Muzaffarpur where he shared the dais with Lok Janshakti Party's Ram Vilas Paswan after an alliance with the Bihar party.

Modi also reached out to the people saying despite the Patna bomb blasts they did not panic.

"I salute the people of Bihar for their bravery and courage during Patna blasts," he said.

He targetted the Third Front, of which Kumar's Janata Dal (United) is a part of, all over again saying that all the parties in alliance have had tie-ups with the Congress.

"This Third Front has always saved Congress, it either has former PMs or those who want to be PM."

"The Third Front comes together only at election time on the mantra of secularism and is dissolved soon."

He also hit out at Bihar chief minister without naming him, who had said last week he was as good a prime ministerial candidate being promoted in the country, "as a restless, arrogant man who dreams to be prime minister".

"Dreams of prime ministership doesn't let him sleep. He has such a high opinion of himself that he feels he is more qualified. It was this arrogance that led him to refuse the money which people of Gujarat had sent him with much fondness. I still try to gauge why, the coalition which we had, was severed by them. And, I still do not have an answer," Modi said.

Modi deftly tried to take up Kumar's main electoral plank by saying: "A government of the BJP at the Centre will assure Bihar special state status, besides a special package and all attention."

He added," Whenever Bihar has changed, the country has changed. India cannot go forward without Bihar. The NDA wants Bihar to move forward and attain heights so that India is changed. But, the arrogance of some has made for a situation that Bihar cannot grow."

Modi also took a jibe at Rashtriya Janata Dal's Lalu Prasad pointing to the revival of the Congress-RJD alliance in Bihar saying even the cattle is worried about its fodder over the development.

"It has made the animals and people jittery, since what is now available is not a 'gathbandhan' (coalition) but a 'bhrashth bandhan (alliance of the corrupt) and they talk not of democratic norms, but 'lathbandhan' (Lalu's recent quote meaning war of sticks)."

"No one in Bihar or in the country wants goonda raj (rule of goons) back."

He said only the National Democratic Alliance can give India a stable government.

"Indian democracy is all about alliances and BJP has always had successful coalitions," he said.

"The NDA wants to go to polls not only to form a government, but a stable one."

The Gujarat CM once again countered Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi's claims of development under the UPA and raked up the issue of scams during it's tenure.

"The shehzada keeps making allegations, but isn't willing to give any answers," said Modi.

"The shehzada is giving speeches across the nation, shouldn't he give a report of the last 10 years? He speaks as if he's from Mars," he said.

He pointed to unaccountability on the part of the UPA saying a party which refuses to be accountable for its 10-years reign at the Centre, cannot be trusted to deliver inclusive, all encompassing and balanced development of the country and preserve its dictum of unity in diversity.

"India wants freedom from a government left gasping in the hospital at the Centre," Modi said.

He also picked on the schemes sponsored or promised by the Central government.

"They said youth will get computers under the Aaakash scheme. But can you say you all have one? When you talk of development, they say, they gave mobiles to the people. Do you have one, which the Centre gave you," he asked.

"While it is known that the future of education will be dictated by technology, the average computer coverage in schools in India is 22%, while it is 70% for Gujarat schools, yet they run down the latter."

"The Centre does not even care for kids. When children died partaking of mid-day meals in Bihar, the Centre set up a committee to reform the system but not a single meeting was held in one year," he added.

Modi continued to attack Bihar CM Kumar over the latter's claims about following the politics of secularism.

"I want to tell my Muslim brothers how they have been used for vote bank politics," the Gujarat CM said.

He went on to provide data collected by the Sachar committee on the number of urban and rural Muslims in Bihar and compared them with that in Gujarat.

"Gujarat's secularism is true secularism, it works for every section of society."

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