Rahul Gandhi tells Nitish Kumar to stop 'flaunting' development

Samastipur (Bihar), Oct 22 (ANI): Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi has brought back the debate of Congress "common man versus NDA's Shining India to pin down Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's development plank.

Rahul-who campaigned on Thursday in Sitamarhi, Samastipur and Muzaffarpur that go to polls in the second phase on October 24- said: "While NDA is interested in shining India, the Congress works for the farmers and the poor. Waiving loans of farmers is a case in point."

"What does NDA do? It says one thing in Bihar, another in Rajasthan, something else in Maharashtra and Karnataka. It does not talk about India; it talks about states, religion, and caste. We talk of India; we talk about you, about your development," he added.

Criticizing Nitish Kumar over the 'poor implementation' of the Indira Awas scheme, Gandhi said: "We have provided maximum amount to Bihar under the Indira Awas scheme but there is very poor implementation."

"The funds that should have reached you, did not reach you. You make a mistake by comparing the Nitish Kumar Government with the last government of Bihar. You should compare this government with the government of Delhi, Maharashtra, Andhra, Rajasthan, and Assam," he added.

Bihar's 47 Assembly constituencies, spread across seven districts, which underwent poll for the first phase of State Assembly elections on Thursday witnessed 53 per cent polling.

The second phase of election will take place on October 24, the third phase on October 28 for 48 seats, the fourth on November1 for 42 seats, the fifth phase on November 9 for 25 seats and the sixth and last phase on November 20 for 26 seats.

Counting of votes will take place on November 24. (ANI)