Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday ripped into the much-hyped claims of development made by Bihar’s NDA government in her impassioned campaign speeches, asserting that the state’s downhill journey was steered in the past 20 years — 15 years of RJD rule and the next five of NDA’s.
Rhetorically matching the shrill criticism of the Nitish Kumar-led JD(U)-BJP government contained in her party’s myriad print and television advertisements, Mrs Gandhi sought to portray Bihar’s recent development as “much less than desired” and said: “For doing good, it requires commitment and support, besides good intention”. In her two crowded public meetings in Bhabhua and Buxar for the sixth and last phase of Assembly polls for 26 seats, Mrs Gandhi thoroughly highlighted the failures of Kumar’s government, mainly in the poor use of central funds.
In statements that obliquely hit out at Bihar’s top political troika — JD(U) stalwart and chief minister Nitish Kumar, RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and his ally Ram Vilas Paswan of the LJP — and the BJP, Mrs Gandhi said: “You have here in the past 20 years those people who do their politics in the name of caste and religion. The most shameful thing is the opportunistic politics they practise. These people have cheated you and they will do it again”. She also attacked the practice of promoting family members in politics without naming Mr Yadav and Mr Paswan.
Elaborately censuring the NDA government for the poor progresses made in such Centrally-sponsored schemes as Bharat Nirman Yojana, MNREGA, midday meal schemes, Mrs Gandhi described Mr Kumar’s campaign promises of further development in Bihar in the event of the NDA government’s return to power as “empty promises” and “sweet dreams to the people”.
Even as BJP stalwart L.K. Advani and Mr Kumar continued asking people to vote the NDA back to power, Mrs Gandhi urged voters to question the ruling JD(U) and BJP why Central funds did not reach them.
Mrs Gandhi’s Bihar tour was coincided with a Congress advertisement in newspapers that juxtaposed the huge sums of central funds for four major welfare programmes with the sums spent by the state government. “Nitish government must answer with details of every bit” went the ad’s headline.