Rajnath Singh predicts grand victory for NDA in LS polls

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday asserted that the BJP-led NDA will ride high on the "rising credibility" of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. The former BJP president, who is on a day-long tour of Bihar, briefly interacted with reporters in Sitamarhi district, where he paid obeisance at Punaura Dham, a shrine where Goddess Sita is believed to have been discovered by King Janaka.

"The way Prime Minister Narendra Modi's credibility has been rising, there will be no area left where the (BJP symbol) lotus would not bloom," Singh said.

He was also asked whether the lotus would bloom "for the first time" in Sitamarhi, a Lok Sabha seat the BJP has never won.


He replied "with the blessings of Mother Janaki, the lotus would bloom in Sitamarhi too", but hastened to add, with a ghost of smile on his lips, "there is a pond nearby with lots of lotuses. So there is no problem".

Notably, the party has not fielded its candidate in Sitamarhi after the 1998 Lok Sabha polls, leaving it for allies like Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's JD(U) or, in 2014 when he fought separately, for the now defunct RLSP.

The JD(U) had won the seat in 2019, when it fielded Sunil Kumar Pintu, a BJP man who chipped in after the official candidate of the chief minister's party returned his ticket.

It is understood that the JD(U) wants to contest the seat again and Nitish Kumar, who is now the party president, has assured state legislative council chairman Devesh Chandra Thakur that he will be the candidate this time.

This has met with resentment from Pintu while the BJP has been maintaining a studied silence over the issue.

Rajnath Singh declined to take questions on development of Sitamarhi, which is not a patch on Ayodhya in terms of infrastructure, despite being a part of the "Ramayana Circuit".

The defence minister will be winding up his tour of Bihar with a public meeting at Darbhanga, before which he is scheduled to visit Siwan and hold discussions with BJP workers from a cluster of five Lok Sabha segments.