Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi on Thursday brought back the debate of Congress? ?common man versus NDA?s Shining India??a strategy that had embarrassed the NDA in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections?to pin down Nitish Kumar?s development plank.
Rahul?who campaigned on Thursday in Sitamarhi, Samastipur and Muzaffarpur that go to polls in the second phase on October 24?asked the Bihar CM him to compare Bihar?s growth with the Congress-run Andhra Pradesh and not the 15-year rule of Lalu Prasad in Bihar.
Rahul, who delivered more or less similar speeches at all three places, questioned the Bihar CM?s secular credentials, saying getting one man (Narendra Modi) out of the Bihar campaign ?was alright? but it was only a sham as ?Nitish had been sharing the same ideology as the BJP?.
He wondered why Nitish sided with a party that had a controversial CM and high-voltage Maharashtra partner Shiv Sena, hell bent on ?beating up and driving out Bihar people from there?. Rahul advised the Bihar CM to visit Mumbai more often to know the well-being of Bihar people.
The AICC general secretary kept his focus on the UPA model of development, calling NREGA the ?world?s best employment programme? and expressing the government?s serious intent of right to food to every citizen.
Speaking in Muzaffarpur, Rahul said: ?While NDA is interested in shining India, the Congress works for the farmers and the poor. Waiving loans of farmers is a case in point.?
Invoking his targeted audience?youth?Rahul Gandhi said the Congress? development model was all about ?youth and development?.
Rahul criticised Nitish Kumar over the ?poor implementation? of the Indira Awas scheme. ?We have provided maximum amount to Bihar under the Indira Awas scheme but there is very poor implementation,? said Rahul, accusing Nitish of unnecessarily ?flaunting? Bihar?s development.
He alleged large-scale discrepancies in the APL/ BPL list. ?Nitishji knows how APL is BPL and BPL is APL in Bihar,? said the AICC general secretary.