In an hour-long tele-conference with party workers on Saturday,being seen as the start of his 2014 campaign in Bihar,Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi made a veiled attack on his Bihar counterpart Nitish Kumar,saying he would be taught a lesson for breaking the BJP-JD(U) alliance. There is a 1974-like anti-Congress wave prevailing in the country now. The mandate of the people of Bihar was for NDA. Like then (in 1974),those who betrayed the peoples mandate in Bihar will be taught a lesson, said Modi while talking to former Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi,even as he refrained from naming Nitish. The JD(U) called off its alliance with the BJP after Modis elevation as his partys election campaign chief last month. In an effort to galvanise the party cadre,Modi spoke to over 1,500 BJP functionaries,from panchayat heads to state party president,during the tele-conference between 6 pm-7 pm,using audio bridge technology. After the BJP-JD(U) split,party workers want their revenge on Nitish. There is an overwhelming feeling among them that Narendra Modi should be the prime minister. People are waiting for your October rally, state BJP president Mangal Pandey told Modi. Arre ye to logon ka pyar hai (this is all peoples love), replied Modi,as he went on to describe Bihar as the land of Buddha,Mahavir and Chanakya. He then claimed that BJP had a better strike rate (89 per cent) than the JD(U) (84 per cent) in the last Assembly elections. We just need to build on that momentum,and success will be ours. Modi raised the BJPs strike rate over and over again in the course of his tele-conference,urging party leaders to believe that the task is not that difficult and it just needs a push. He also asked them to raise the issues of inflation and corruption under UPA rule. People have been rendered helpless with sky-rocketing price rise,and corruption is at its peak. They need to be reminded about this, he said. When Saran BJP president Ved Prakash Upadhyay sought his message for Bihar BJP workers,Modi replied: We just need to work hard. People of Bihar have been very intelligent and have sent IAS and IPS officers across the country. They are very hard-working,and I salute them. To Banka BJP president Anil Kumar Singh,Modi said they needed to go to the people with positive energy,adding that the party already has a good hold in the state and just needs to win hearts. And when Aurangabad BJP president Purushottam Kumar Singh asked him,How did you ensure development of Gujarat,especially uninterrupted power supply?,Modi replied,When I took over as CM the first time,electricity would go off during dinner time. After years of sustained effort,we now have 24-hour power supply. Diamond-cutting factories,which used to be limited to Surat,have now shifted to villages because of uninterrupted power supply.
