Another 'emergency' jibe: Nitish has imposed undeclared emergency in Bihar, says Sushil Modi

Patna, Jun 19: A day after Nitish Kumar backed BJP leader L K Advani's apprehension about an emergency-like situation looming over the country, party leader Sushil Kumar Modi today accused the Bihar chief minister of imposing an undeclared emergency in the state to win legislative council polls.

Kumar, who has allied with RJD and Congress which was responsible for imposing emergency in the country 40 years ago, has imposed an undeclared emergency in Bihar to win legislative council polls for 24 seats, he said in a statement.

Accusing Kumar of resorting to coercive tactics to monopolise various means of publicity for the July 7 legislative council polls, Sushil Modi claimed that the advertisement agencies were being blackmailed and the mukhiyas threatened to back the JD(U)-Congress-RJD alliance candidates at the hustings.

"The private advertisers have been threatened that its arrears of the past will not only be withheld for carrying out publicity campaign for BJP, but those agencies will be framed in false cases," Sushil Modi, former deputy chief minister, alleged.

These advertisers have also been given "lollipops" like raising advertisement rates if they carry out publicity only for the ruling alliance in Bihar, he claimed.

The JD(U) government has given another option that the advertisement dues worth Rs 50 crore pending with the private advertisers will not be recovered despite the advertisers losing cases in the court, he claimed.

"Is misuse of official machinery and bid to monopolise publicity means does not amount to imposition of undeclared emergency in Bihar?" Modi asked.

Slamming the Nitish Kumar government for "strangulating democracy in Bihar by resorting to unethical means" with the legislative council polls in sight, the senior BJP leader claimed that the state has been gripped by "Jungle Raj -2 and undeclared emergency."

PTI