Bihar polls: Ananth Kumar attacks Lalu, Nitish for 'negative campaign'

Patna, Oct 6: Union Minister and senior BJP leader Ananth Kumar on Tuesday hit out at Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and RJD chief Lalu Prasad for their "negative campaign" in contrast to positive agendas of NDA and said the coming state assembly polls were a direct contest between "jungle raj and development".

"The Chief Minister is apparently rattled with a visible lead established by the BJP-led coalition in the run up to the assembly polls, while the RJD supremo himself has acknowledged that a satan in his mouth had made him say that the Hindus too eat beef," the Union Chemicals and Fertilizers Minister told reporters here.

The secular alliance's "negative campaign" goes against the grain of development politics, which has been charted out by the BJP-led coalition to win the crucial Bihar assembly polls, Ananth Kumar said and exhorted the electorate to give a decisive mandate to the NDA to implement its blue print for the state's development over the next five years.

"We will carry out comprehensive development in Bihar by implementing Rs 1.25 lakh crore special package announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself, in addition to Rs 40,000 crore funds for completion of projects under progress in the state," he said.

Only a state government which works in tandem with the Centre can implement the special package and not a "confrontationist government" as the present one in Bihar, he said.

The Union Minister questioned the silence of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Congress president Sonia Gandhi amid the controversy over Prasad's beef remarks and said the JD(U) leader has become servile to Prasad, who runs the show on behalf of the secular alliance.

Referring to a remark by the RJD supremo that he will not join election meeting with Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi as Congress was on the deathbed in Bihar, he said the secular alliance was disintegrating even before the first phase of the poll.

Ananth Kumar said he will impress upon IT companies based in Bengaluru to invest in Bihar in order to generate employment opportunities in the state if BJP is voted to power.

With the supply of urea being a perennial problem in Bihar, Kumar said the Barauni-based fertiliser plant will produce 13 lakh metric tonne urea upon completion of renovation works to meet the requirement of farmers.

PTI