Jharkhand Assembly election: At Bokaro rally, Rajnath Singh vows to enact NRC across nation; JP Nadda pitches poll as battle for destiny as BJP ups ante

The day after the first phase of polling came to an end in Jharkhand, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is hoping to retain power in the state, stepped up its campaign. [caption id=“attachment_7723951” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Rajnath Singh at an event in Bokaro. ANI[/caption] Addressing a poll rally in Bokaro, Rajnath Singh promised to implement the NRC across the country. “Every Indian has a right to know who are the illegal immigrants in their country. Some parties find fault in this as well, they accuse us of being communal,” Rajnath said. Speaking about the construction of a Ram Temple at Ayodhya, he said," We are going to build a grand temple of Lord Ram at the birthplace of Ramlalla, as we promised in every manifesto. Even though some parties mocked us for this, no one can stop us from building the temple." Exuding confidence regarding the outcome of the Assembly elections, he said the first round of polling made it evident that the BJP would return with full majority to form the government. At a poll rally in Chaibasa, BJP working president JP Nadda listed the One Rank One Pension scheme and the banning of triple talaq as key achievements of the Union government. At a separate rally, Nadda claimed that the BJP was the only option to bring about development in the state. Pitching the upcoming Assembly election as one which would decide the destiny and image of Jharkhand, he claimed that the BJP had provided a corruption free and stable government. " It is only the BJP which can take Jharkhand on the path of development. In the last five years, we have given a stable, corruption free government to the state, which has never indulged in any form of horse-trading," Nadda claimed. Listing the achievements of the BJP-led Union government, he said that the first session of the Lok Sabha was an especially productive one, where 128 percent productivity had been reached. “In its first session, the Lok Sabha worked from 6 in the morning to 10 in the night, during which 200 bills were introduced and 40 of these were passed,” Nadda said. He also listed the passing of the triple talaq Bill, the OROP scheme and the purchase of Rafale fighter jets as the key achievements of the Modi-led government. “Many Islamic countries in the world have outlawed the practice of triple talaq but the threat of it continued to hang over Muslim women in India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi brought the practice to end,” Nadda said. “Not a single gun was bought during UPA tenure. Demand of ‘One Rank, One Pension’ was pending since 1971. When we came to power, we gave OROP to 22 lakh soldiers bought 36 Rafale and distributed 1.81 lakh bullet-proof jackets to our soldiers,” Nadda claimed. Hitting out at the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), one of the key Opposition players in the state, Nadda said that the party had been indulging in politics without bringing welfare to to adivasis and that it was only due to Modi’s efforts that an OBC Commission had been formed. Crediting the Raghubar Das government for providing an additional cylinder under the Ujjwala scheme, Nadda said “This is called a double-engine rule.” Calling the Congress-JMM alliance as an alliance formed for the greed of power, Nadda said that the BJP is the only option to bring about development . “When the movement for the formation of the state was on, it was the Congress which had ordered bullets to be fired on the people,” he said. " The alliance does not care about the development of the state or about its people." Twenty Assembly constituencies, including Chaibasa, are set to vote in the second phase of polling on 7 December. The counting of votes for the five-phase Assembly elections will take place on the 23 December. The state is ruled by the BJP in alliance with the All Jharkhand Students’ Union (AJSU). However,the BJP is seeking to come to power on its own after after NDA allies, including Janata Dal United (JDU) and AJSU decided to part ways with the saffron party. With inputs from ANI