Modi rakes up Kosi in Bihar

BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on Thursday asked people to ensure that no political party opened its account in the ensuing Lok Sabha elections in Bihar.

BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on Thursday asked people to ensure that no political party opened its account in the ensuing Lok Sabha elections in Bihar.

“A tsunami-like wave is blowing across the country and it is bound to wipe out the Congress and other regional parties. The elections held so far have given clear indication that the UPA government is on its way out. People have laid the foundation of a new government and now it is your turn to strengthen its future,” he said while addressing a rally at Saharsa, the nerve centre of Madhepura constituency.

Modi reached Saharsa nearly two hours behind schedule, delayed as he was at Varanasi, where he held a massive road show before filing his nomination papers. He began his nearly 10-minute speech by seeking an apology for reaching late and assured the people that their sacrifice would not go waste.

Playing the Kosi tragedy card to woo the electorate, Modi held the Congress-led UPA government responsible for the poor plight of the people of the region. “The Kosi region has been badly hit by natural calamities since 1934. But the Congress government did nothing to ameliorate the poor condition of the people. In fact, it never bothered to improve their condition,” he said.

Modi said steps to connect Kosi with Mithila should have been initiated 50 years ago by the then government. “But it was taken up by the NDA government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The foundation of the ambitious Kosi bridge was laid by Vajpayeeji. Still, the work on the proposed rail bridge was incomplete,” he said assuring the crowd he will fulfil Vajpayee’s dream.

Taking up the cause of the farmers, Modi said that the prevalent system of fixing minimum support price (MSP) for farmers’ produce was not uniform and remunerative. “The BJP government will rework the formula to fix the MSP and add 50% of the input cost,” he said.