)
Unfazed by serial blasts at his rally, Narendra Modi today tore into bete noire Nitish Kumar on his home turf, saying he was an "opportunist" who had "betrayed and backstabbed" Jaiprakash Narayan, Ram Manohar Lohia and also people of Bihar for Prime Ministerial dreams.
Visiting Bihar for the first time from where Chief Minister Nitish Kumar kept him away during the period of their alliance, the BJP Prime Ministerial candidate repeatedly attacked Nitish for snapping of JD(U)-BJP ties in June. He alleged that Nitish was playing hide and seek with Congress, against whom his mentors JP and Lohia fought all their lives, and was dreaming of becoming the Prime Minister.
"One who shunned Jaiprakash, why can't he leave BJP? He fought all his life to free the nation from the Congress and the one who claims to be Lohia's disciple has stabbed him in his back and is now playing hide and seek with Congress. Whether his followers will forgive him or not, the souls of Lohia and JP will never forgive his deeds," Modi said addressing a mammoth public meeting here at the Gandhi Maidan.
Just minutes before he spoke, six serial bomb blasts rocked the venue of the BJP Prime Ministerial candidate's rally, leaving at least five dead and 66 injured. Modi did not refer to the blasts in his speech but appealed to his followers to reach home safety.
Without taking Nitish's name and referring to him derisively as "friend", the Gujarat Chief Minister attacked Nitish for not allowing him to campaign in Bihar in the last assembly polls and said he had accepted the "humiliation" for the sake of not allowing "Jungle Raj" in Bihar again.
Modi vowed to oust JD(U) which had quit NDA opposing his elevation as the BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate.
In his over 40-minute speech, Modi started with Bhojpuri and intermittently used Maithli and Magehi - the three main dialects of the state.
Taking a jibe at the Bihar Chief Minister, Modi cited an instance where he and Nitish were sharing a table at a lucheon by the Prime Minister during a meeting of Chief Ministes in Delhi and Nitish was "not eating and was uncomfortable and kept looking around".
"I understood the matter and told him, there are no cameras around. You can have your food....There is a limit to hypocracy," he said.
The Gujarat Chief Minister attacked the Congress saying it was misguiding people in the name of secularism and pitched for Hindu-Muslim unity for the development of the nation, saying neither of them wanted to fight each other and need to together fight poverty instead.
