New Delhi: With seat sharing decided and a firm coalition in place, the Janata Dal United-Rashtriya Janata Dal-Congress partnership is all set to show its strength with the mega Swabhiman rally in Bihar's capital Patna on Sunday. All top leaders of the three parties including Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, RJD supremo Lalu Yadav and Congress president Sonia Gandhi will address the rally which is the Mahagathbandhan's first jointly organised public meeting to counter the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance.
With Nitish Kumar leading the charge as the Mahagathbandhan chief ministerial candidate, the rally will focus on his image of "sushashan babu (good governance)" who turned around Bihar in the last 10 year.
It will also be used to play up the Bihari asmita (pride) issue and DNA, a term which came out of biology books to enter the state's political lexicon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi questioned Nitish Kumar's political DNA during the first Parivartan rally in north Bihar's Muzaffarpur on July 25.
Since then Nitish Kumar has tried to project Modi's DNA remark as an affront to entire Bihar and even launched the "shabd wapsi (take back your words)" campaign against the Prime Minister.
The rally is happening just two days before Modi’s fourth rally in the state. Modi will address last Parivartan rally at Bhagalpur, scheduled for September 1.
With Lalu Prasad and Sonia Gandhi on the stage, the message that Nitish Kumar would like to send across is that the Mahagathbandhan is united. He will also counter BJP's charge that he is reluctant to share stage with Lalu despite joining hands with him because of the RJD chief's conviction in a fodder scam case which has made the former Bihar chief minister ineligible to contest elections.
Samajwadi Party, which is part of the Mahagathbandhan but has negligible presence in Bihar and has been offered five seats, will also have two of its leaders on the stage.
Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad have left no stone unturned to make their first joint show of strength a huge success by mobilising their party machinery. JDU and RJD workers had been working for the last few weeks to make the rally a grand success.
Nitish Kumar, who had lambasted Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his Rs 1.65 lakh crore Bihar package calling it as merely remaining a promise, on August 28 came out with his own set of mega promises woth Rs 2.70 lakh crore ahead of the Assembly elections in the state.
While the package announced by the Prime Minister focused primarily on infrastructural development such as roads and highways, the one released by the Bihar Chief Minister talked mostly about youth and other basic amenities such as sanitation, drinking water and electricity.
Taking a jibe at the PM's special package, Kumar told a press conference here, "Unlike the much hyped package which is nothing but repackaging of old schemes, my (Rs 2.70 lakh crore) vision comprises programmes which are doable and I have worked out mobilisation of resources for it."
"It's my 'dil ki baat' and not 'maan ki baat' ," the Bihar CM said while taking a pot shot at the Prime Minister.
The plan has been termed as ‘Viksit Bihar ke 7 Sootra', which roughly translates to 7 keys for a developed Bihar. Apart from the financial schemes, the plan promises 35% reservation for women in government jobs.
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