Modi invokes 'Jungle Raj', vows to remove Bihar's BIMARU tag

Says if Jungle Raj part II arrives, everything will be ruined

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today mounted a scathing attack on the "politically opportunistic" JD(U)-RJD alliance in Bihar, repeatedly invoking the spectre of "Jungle Raj", which he warned the coalition would usher in if voted to power.

Modi also vowed to remove the BIMARU tag given to the laggard state within five years of BJP-led NDA coming to power, but did not announce the much-expected economic package he has promised.

Addressing his second rally in a fortnight in the poll-bound state, Modi said, the assembly polls, due in October-November, presented an opportunity to the people to free themselves of a government "steeped in arrogance".

Modi, who made repeated reference to "jungle raj", the euphemism used for alleged misgovernance during the Lalu-Rabri rule, in his 40-minute speech, cautioned the people against bringing it back after the polls as he highlighted the contradictions plaguing the RJD-JD(U) alliance.

"If Jungle Raj part II arrives, everything will be ruined. During Jungle Raj part I there was no experience of jail, which would be there now. Nobody learns good things in jail," he said, hinting at RJD chief Lalu Prasad's incarceration for alleged involvement in the fodder scam.

Referring to the alliance "forged out of political opportunism", Modi said,"Will the coalition survive after the elections are over. Those who drank poison will they spew it after the polls. Where will it fall? In people's plate. Should you allow them to do that?

"I don't know who's Bhujang (snake) Prasad and who's Chandan (sandalwood) Kumar in Bihar. Who's serving poison and who's drinking it, but together they will create a poisonous environment in Bihar when elections are over," he said.

After Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's anointment as the secular alliance's chief ministerial candidate, Lalu had said he was prepared to even drink poison to defeat communal forces, which many saw as reflecting the unease in the coalition.

Later, when asked during a public interface on Twitter about how will he take forward the state under a coalition which had Lalu Prasad's RJD as a partner, Kumar created a flutter by citing a couplet of poet Rahim which said "sandalwood tree gathers no poison despite venomous snakes wrapping themselves around it." Many felt the snake's reference was to Lalu.