PM Narendra Modi steps up attack on Lalu: 'How did Shaitan find your address?'

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday linked Lalu Yadav’s remark on beef with ‘Yaduvanshi’ pride and turned it into a big campaign talking point. He said Lord Krishna, to whom the Yadav community traces its lineage, was reverent to cows and buffaloes. He also stressed that the cow-rearing community could be an agent of social and economic change. Last week, the RJD chief had stoked a controversy with his remark that Hindus too ate beef. Sensing a political opportunity, the BJP has made it into an electoral issue. On Wednesday, Amit Shah had asked Nitish Kumar and Rahul Gandhi to clarify their stand on Lalu’s remark. Sushil Modi and other senior leaders have been questioning whether the Mahagathbandan (the JDU-RJD-Congress alliance)would open beef shops in every corner of the state. Modi, in his characteristic interactive style, took the matter to a different level. He used the RJD chief’s clarification that it was ‘Shaitan’ (demon) that forced his tongue to speak out such a thing, to hit out against him. [caption id=“attachment_2461072” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Narendra Modi in a file photo. Naresh Sharma/Firstpost[/caption] “How did Shaitan find his (Lalu’s) address? Why did Shaitan choose him among all people in the entire state, nation and the world? Should people of Bihar allow the person in whom Shaitan resides to rule the state?” Modi questioned, with a touch of sarcasm. To buttress his point that that cow-rearing community could actually be an agent of change, Modi cited the example of the ‘white revolution’ and the success of Amul, which originated in Gujarat. The combined force of the Yadav and Muslim (M-Y) communities forms the core of the Mahagathbandan’s electoral support base. It seems Lalu has offered the rival BJP a chance to breach it on a platter. Modi has been appealing to the youth of the community to look for options beyond Lalu. In each of his rallies Modi uses the term ‘Naujavan (youth) over half a dozen times and talks about how they could reshape the fortune of the state. In this round campaigning, Modi has been highlighting the point that either the Congress or someone from the Janata Parivar has ruled Bihar since Independence. That’s why they are collectively responsible for Bihar’s plight. So far he had been demanding that Nitish Kumar must give an account of the 25-year rule of Lalu-Rabri and his own. Now he has expanded the incumbency horizon for Lalu-Nitish to 60 years. Calling Mahagathbandahn as Mahaswathbandahn (grand self-seeking alliance), Modi targeted Nitish and Lalu for becoming a camp follower of Congress even as they claimed to be disciples of Jaiparakah Naiarain and Ram Manohar Lohia. Today is JP’s death anniversary. The four rallies Modi held today, two that he will address tomorrow and around two and half dozen more that he may address till conclusion of the fifth and final phase of polling on November 4 have become a matter of debate in the state. While his rivals see it as his desperation, his supporters claim that it is his energy and desire to maximize the winning chances of the NDA that drives him to hold so many rallies.