Nitish Working to Provide LED Bulbs As Oppn Pushes Bihar into Darkness, Says PM Modi

Valmiki Nagar: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday tore into the Congress for promising in its manifesto the withdrawal of special powers given to

armed forces involved in security operations in Jammu and Kashmir and doing away with the sedition law.

Addressing an election meeting in this remote parliamentary constituency situated on the Indo-Nepal border, Modi said he was appalled to see the Congress speaking the

same language as Pakistan despite being the party which has been in power for long and urged the people to give a befitting reply to the opposition parties in the elections.

Referring to the Lalu Prasad-led Rashtriya Janata Dal by its election symbol of lantern, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at his Valmiki Nagar rally on Saturday that Nitish Kumar had replaced the 'lalten' with an LED bulb. Modi said parties like Congress and its ally in Bihar, the RJD were in tatters because these were led by people who owed their leadership to inheritance without a vision.

First, the Mahamilavatis (the grand alliance of opposition parties) began with abusing Modi. When they saw it was not paying electoral dividends, they trained their guns at the EVMs. After four phases of polls, they have become frustrated and started attacking the Election Commission. They are behaving like a batsman who blames the umpire after being clean bowled, like a student who comes up with silly excuses after flunking examinations, the prime minister said.

"They do not see themselves as sevaks (servants) of the people but modern maharajas of democracy," Modi alleged.

He also dismissed the Congress promises of helping the poor through measures like the NYAY scheme and waiver of farmers' loans.

They (Congress) fooled the people in 2009 with a similar promise. Only a fraction of loans given to farmers was waived and many of the beneficiaries turned out to be not engaged in farming, as per the CAG report, he alleged.

Beware of their promise of transferring cash into your accounts. These are the people who ruled the country for so many decades and could not help the poor or even have their accounts opened in banks, Modi said indirectly referring to his governments 'Jan Dhan' scheme.

Their electoral promises are nothing but yet another ploy to siphon off money from the exchequer. But let them realize I will not allow a panja (hand an allusion to the Congress poll symbol) on public funds, he said evoking applause from the crowds.