Earlier govt deprived poor of their needs; NDA will empower them: Modi

Voters undergo thermal screening at a polling station before casting their votes during the second phase of the Bihar assembly elections, in Patna, on Tuesday. Pic/PTI

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday dismissed suggestions of anti-incumbency against the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar, asserting that the NDA had spent the last decade meeting the people's "needs" and was now focused on taking care of their "aspirations".

Addressing a rally in this north Bihar town of Araria district, Modi also asserted that trends of the first phase of assembly elections, and the second that was under way, suggested that voters of the state had rejected "double yuvraaj", an expression he has coined for Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and RJD's Tejashwi Yadav.

"In Bihar, rangbaazi (rowdyism) and rangdaari (extortion) are losing and vikas (development) and kanoon kaa raaj (rule of law) is winning, parivarvaad (dynasty rule) is being defeated by janatantra (democracy)," he asserted. Recalling the state's notoriety for booth capturing in the 1990s, the Prime Minister said, "They (NDA's predecessors in government) had deprived the poor of even their right to vote. It is the NDA which empowered the downtrodden in the state again."

Calling the 15 years of Lalu-Rabri rule "jungle raj", he said its proponents did not want the people of Bihar to chant 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai' and 'Jai Shri Ram'. "If they have trouble with those who chant 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai', Bihar also has trouble with them," he told another rally in Saharsa. The PM said under Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Bihar had left behind the darkness of "insecurity and anarchy" of the RJD rule.

"Roads and markets today bustle with people even late in the night under Nitish Kumar," he said. In the backdrop of young voters' much talked about dissatisfaction with what has been achieved by the government in the last 15 years, Modi said, "The last decade was spent in fulfilling avashyaktaaein (needs). The current one shall be devoted to meeting the aspirations (aakankshaaein)".

Bihar sees 53.51% voter turnout

The 94 assembly constituencies that went to poll in phase two of Bihar elections recorded 53.51 per cent turnout and the figure was likely to go up as voting continued beyond schedule in several places, the Election Commission said. The combined voter turnout in the two phases was recorded at 53.79 per cent till 5 pm, the Commission said.

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