PM campaigning intensively in Bihar as BJP is jittery, says RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav

Patna: RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Tuesday claimed that the BJP-led NDA was "jittery" in Bihar, a reason why Prime Minister Narendra Modi's campaign in the state was being intensified.

Yadav made the remark when journalists drew his attention to the fact that while Union Home Minister Amit Shah's rally in Aurangabad was scheduled on Wednesday, Modi was likely to address an election meeting in Gaya on April 16.

The Lok Sabha polls in Bihar have been staggered across all the seven phases, and Modi has already held two rallies at Jamui and Nawada.

While his Gaya visit is yet to be confirmed by the BJP, former Bihar chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, an NDA partner who is trying his luck from Gaya, claimed that the PM has agreed to canvass in his favour.

"People do visit different places during elections, but it is becoming clear that the BJP is jittery this time. The attention of its top leaders, as also the ED and CBI, which are being used for settling political scores, seems focused on Bihar," Yadav asserted.

"My only request to the prime minister is that the next time he should talk about issues like poverty, unemployment and Bihar's long-standing demand for special status," the young RJD leader said.

Yadav, who is also a former deputy CM, has been alleging that the PM, in his Bihar speeches, diverts public attention from "failures" of the NDA government at the Centre by going hammer and tongs at the RJD and its rule in the state that ended two decades ago.