Lalu Prasad Turned Gopalganj Into Mini-Chambal: PM Modi

Gopalganj, Bihar: Taking on the grand alliance in Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad's home turf, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today asked Nitish Kumar whether he wanted the old days of 'jungle raj' when the region had turned into a 'mini Chambal' to return.

"Nitish ji says with temerity--return us the old days. You remember those days when kidnappings were the order of the day, women were dishonoured, Dalits were persecuted, robberies used to happen daily. What happened during the jungle raj? Didn't they make this area (Gopalganj) a mini-Chambal? ," he said in a reference to Madhya Pradesh's Chambal region where dacoits once held sway.

"Here gun shots were fired indiscriminately on railway stations. There was only one thing that happened here, which was kidnapping. Do you want the area to become Chambal again? Do you want those old days? Nitishji the old days may be acceptable to you for the lust of power but not to people of Bihar," he said.

He also attacked the Bihar chief minister over his 2005 speech in Parliament allegedly advocating sub-quota for Muslims. PM Modi said the old days must be acceptable to Mr Kumar but not to the people of Bihar.

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"Nitish Kumar had made his intentions clear way back on August 24, 2005. They lost cool when I alleged that they want to steal away 5 per cent of reservation from the quota given to SCs/STs/OBCs and EBCs and give to a particular community. Even the makers of Indian Constitution were against it."

PM Modi's counter portraying the grand alliance as tilted towards a particular community even on reservation issue is an apparent move to take the sting out of the rivals' attempt to portray BJP as anti-reservation after RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's remarks on reservation.

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He also read out names of the scams that were reported during the regime of Mr Prasad and Mr Kumar.