Amid serial blasts at rally, Modi declares war on Nitish

Calls Bihar chief minister an 'opportunist' who back-stabbed to push his PM dream

A series of low-intensity bomb blasts here, venue of the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP's) ambitious 'Hunkar Rally', failed to deter Narendra Modi, the party's prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 general elections, from attacking bête noire Nitish Kumar on his home turf. Modi called Kumar, the Bihar chief minister, an "opportunist", who had "betrayed and back-stabbed" people to push his prime ministerial aspirations.

At the chief minister's press conference on the explosions, the state's director general of police confirmed one bomb exploded earlier in the day at the Patna railway station, two km from the site of the rally, while six went off when the rally was on. One was in the middle of Gandhi Maidan, where Modi was addressing the rally, while five happened in the vicinity. Besides, four live bombs were recovered - two near the stage set up at the venue and two within a kilometre of it. The serial bomb blasts claimed five lives and left 83 injured. The police say they have nabbed one of the perpetrators and will give a detailed report within 72 hours.

Kumar had managed to keep Modi out of Bihar during the period of his party's alliance with BJP. On Sunday, the latter repeatedly took digs at the former. "The chief minister here is my friend. People asked me why your friend left BJP. My reply was, the person who could leave Jayaprakash (JP) Narayan and Lohia can leave BJP, too," Modi said.

He alleged Kumar, only to fulfil his dream of becoming the country's prime minister, was playing hide-and-seek with the Congress, against which his mentors, JP and Lohia, had fought all their lives.

"He claims to be a disciple of JP and Lohia but he has stabbed them in the back. Their souls would never forgive him, even if their followers forgave him."

Claiming Kumar's behaviour reeked of hypocrisy, Modi said: "I and my friend happened to meet at the same table during a luncheon hosted by the PM. He was uncomfortable and looking around. I understood the matter and told him there were no cameras around, so he could have his lunch... There's a limit to hypocrisy."

He added, BJP had given up its right to form a government in Bihar, even as it had more MLAs than the Janata Dal (United), Kumar's party. "For us, the interest of the nation is more important. We let Nitish be the CM so that the jungle raj could end. Despite several requests, I did not come to campaign in Bihar - to ensure the government stayed and the jungle raj did not return. He not only cheated BJP but also the people of Bihar. Let's oust these back-stabbers," he said.

BJP had pulled out all stops to make the rally, touted as a show of strength for the party after its bitter split with JD(U) four months back.

On the serial blasts in the city, Sushma Swaraj, the leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, said it was a serious security lapse, out of negligence and intelligence failure. BJP said the JD(U) government had lost its moral right to rule the state. "The person who was to address the rally is in the Z-plus security cover category and, despite that, there was no proper security arrangement," the party's national spokesperson, Meenakshi Lekhi, said in Kolkata.

At his conference, Kumar ruled out security lapses and said calling the blasts an intelligence failure was "oversimplification of facts".

The Centre has sought a report from the Bihar government and is rushing a team of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to assist in further investigations.

President Pranab Mukherjee said the nation must remain firm in its resolve to fight against all forms of terror, as violence had no place in a civilised society.