Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Saturday launched a sharp attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the NDA government in Bihar, alleging that Rs 10,000 is being distributed during elections to influence voters.
Addressing a massive election rally in Bachwada Assembly constituency of Begusarai, Gandhi said, “The ruling parties didn’t give anything before the elections, and now they are giving Rs 10,000. What does that mean?They need you now, that’s why they are distributing money. Take the money if they offer it but cast your vote very carefully. Don’t let them buy your vote.” Priyanka Gandhi said she too was making promises, adding that people should remove the Congress if it does not fulfil them.
She said Bihar was the land from where Mahatma Gandhi launched the freedom movement, and questioned why the state had not developed despite its historic legacy. “This land has given so much to the country.
Yet why has the ruling leadership not developed this state properly?” she asked. Priyanka said the Constitution guarantees equality, liberty and the right to vote, and alleged the Modi government has weakened those rights.
According to her, the BJP-led government is practising divisive politics based on caste and religion and distracting people by raising unrelated issues. She also alleged that 65 lakh votes were deleted during Special Intensive Revision (SIR), claiming that “if your vote is cut, your rights are cut”.
Gandhi said top BJP leaders, including the PM and Union Home Minister, campaign in Bihar, but do not speak about current issues such as inflation, unemployment and migration. “Jobs are not available, and families are breaking up due to migration.
From Kerala to Kashmir, I have seen people from Bihar working everywhere.” She alleged that the BJP has imposed taxes on everything, privatised national assets, and pushed contract-based employment. On Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Gandhi said he has ruled Bihar for 20 years.
“Now he says he will give 1.5 crore jobs. Why didn’t he do it in the last 20 years? Does he think the public is foolish?” she said. Priyanka alleged the NDA made promises on inflation and unemployment, but handed over big companies to their industrialist friends and gave nothing to the common people.
Priyanka Gandhi further targeted the BJP over its double-engine slogan and accused the Modi government of taking decisions centrally from Delhi. She said, “Narendra Modi says they will run a double-engine government. I want to tell you they don’t have a double engine.
They have a single engine that runs from Delhi. You have no voice, and even your Chief Minister has no voice.” Priyanka alleged that the situation created under Prime Minister Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah has forced people of Bihar to migrate for livelihood, and said that only a change of government can stop this trend.
She also called the BJP leaders “vote thieves”. “First, they tried to divide people on the basis of castes and religions. For some time, that plan worked. Then they tried to distract people. But now the public has understood the public is awake.
That is why they are stealing votes,” she said. While countering the BJP’s frequent attacks on earlier Congress governments, Priyanka Gandhi said the BJP talks about the past selectively. “Who built IITs, IIMs, AIIMS?These were built by Jawaharlal Nehru.
When we speak about the past, their arguments don’t stand. We talk about the present, not about history,” she said. Defending the Congress's stand on the caste census, she asked why Rahul Gandhi raises the issue of social justice.
According to her, full representation for backward classes, extremely backward classes, Dalits and Mahadalit communities is still not achieved, which is why a caste census is necessary. She said when Rahul Gandhi raised the issue, the entire BJP opposed it from Narendra Modi down to the lowest-level leader.
Priyanka also claimed the BJP changed its stance on the caste census after the Lok Sabha results. “The BJP did not get the desired results in the 2024 Lok Sabha election, and then they realised the equation was changing.That is why they started talking about caste census but later they went to court and pushed it aside,” she added.