FILE photo: BJP's prime ministerial candidate and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi
is back today on arch rival Nitish Kumar's turf Bihar, this time with added ammunition. At his side in Muzaffarpur will be the BJP's newest ally, Ram Vilas Paswan, who returned last week to the national alliance Mr Modi's party leads after 12 years.
Mr Modi last addressed a rally in Bihar in October. Multiple blasts ripped through capital city Patna minutes before he arrived at the venue of his
hunkar rally, leaving seven people dead and over 80 injured.
Today's show, also called the
hunkar rally, will be held next to a ground in the Bakhri-Parimasa area on the Darbhanga-Muzaffarpur national highway. There is tight security.
The BJP's first choice of venue, the Police Lines ground, could not be used because of lack of space. The party's state unit, perpetually at loggerheads with the Nitish Kumar government, has accused it of trying to trip up their preparations by not allowing them to use both the residential and training grounds at the police lines for the Modi rally.
Nitish Kumar, who had ended a 17-year relationship with the BJP last year when it became clear that it would nominate Mr Modi as its prime ministerial candidate, has accused Ram Vilas Paswan of opportunism.
(Read) Mr Paswan had walked out of the BJP-led NDA in April 2002, criticising Mr Modi's handling of the riots that tore through Gujarat earlier that year.
Last week, as he announced a new partnership, Mr Paswan pledged support to Mr Modi's leadership.
(Read: Modi is also from the extremely backward classes, says Paswan)Mr Paswan quit a long-running alliance with Lalu Prasad's Rashtriya Janata Dal after they failed to agree on seat sharing. The new alignment with the BJP has thrown electoral calculations wide open in Bihar.
The RJD is close to tying up seat-sharing with the Congress for the state's 40 Lok Sabha seats. The BJP has agreed to let Mr Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) contest seven seats. Mr Paswan brings to the table about five per cent Dalit votes in Bihar.
(Read: The importance of being Ram Vilas Paswan)