Amit Shah, Priyanka Gandhi trade blame as Bihar poll campaign hampered by rain

Inclement weather cast a shadow on the election campaign in Bihar on Saturday, where leaders like Union minister Amit Shah, BJP president J P Nadda and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had to either cancel their rallies or address those virtually.

Shah had rallies scheduled in Gopalganj, Samastipur and Vaishali districts, but since he was advised against taking a helicopter, the former BJP president addressed the people at the venues through video conference.

Nadda, who faced similar constraints, adopted the same strategy for rallies scheduled in Siwan and Muzaffarpur districts.

Vadra, who canvassed in a Bihar election for the first time, travelled by road to address her rally in Begusarai, about 120 km from the state capital, though her next election meeting in Khagaria, which would have entailed another two-hour drive, had to be cancelled.

While Shah called the election “a choice between progress under Narendra Modi and Nitish Kumar, and those who would bring back jungle raj in Bihar”, Nadda, too, raked up the “lawlessness” that allegedly prevailed while the RJD was in power in Bihar.

Vadra slammed the ruling NDA for “putting the blame of everything on Congress, Nehru and Indira Gandhi”, and alleged that claims of a double-engine government notwithstanding, the government in the state was being “run from Delhi” with “neither the people nor Chief Minister Nitish Kumar being treated with respect”.

However, former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, who had flown down to Hayaghat in Darbhanga, to canvass in favour of former MLA and RJD supremo Lalu Prasad's personal aide Bhola Yadav, did manage to address a rally.

Another noteworthy roadshow was held late in the evening, in Muzaffarpur district, by Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Phadnavis, who joined Union minister and BJP ally Chirag Paswan for canvassing in favour of NDA candidates.

With election rallies being hampered by the weather, many leaders, including Nitish Kumar, who heads the JD(U), chose to take out roadshows. Kumar's roadshow in Madhubani followed an early morning video message on social media in which the CM urged the people to continue reposing their trust in his leadership. He later also addressed a rally in Vaishali.

INDIA bloc chief ministerial candidate Tejashwi Yadav addressed some of the rallies through a video call over phone, before deciding that it was time to venture out.

The RJD leader addressed a rally in Raghunathpur, where its candidate Osama, the son of former Siwan MP Mohd Shahabuddin, whose name struck terror while he was alive, is often being cited by NDA leaders to allege that the party wanted to bring back “jungle raj”.

The BJP-led coalition, which has been ruling the state for 20 years, was criticised for running a “negative campaign” by CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat, who was in the state capital to launch the manifesto of the party, which is contesting the polls as an INDIA bloc partner.

Meanwhile, Union minister Piyush Goyal addressed the media in the state capital where he reiterated the NDA's promise to help Bihar scale greater heights, and claimed that the journey towards progress will be hampered if the RJD-helmed coalition came to power.

Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate fulminated against the ruling NDA at press conferences in Patna and Muzaffarpur. Former JNU students' union president Kanhaiya Kumar, the national in-charge of the Congress' student wing NSUI, urged the people, through the media, to “vote for a change”.

The murder of Dular Chand Yadav, a gangster-turned-politician who was formerly associated with the RJD but was supporting Prashant Kishor's Jan Suraaj Party, was cited by INDIA bloc leaders as an example of bad law and order in the NDA-ruled state.

The Election Commission, which had on Friday sought a report from the state police chief, ordered the transfer of at least three officials posted at Mokama, the site of the incident.

Preparations were also underway for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's tour of the state on Sunday, when he is scheduled to address rallies in Bhojpur and Nawada districts, followed by a “mega roadshow” in Patna.