Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad Yadav's alliance 'opportunistic': Amit Shah

PATNA: Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah has termed the alliance between Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad Yadav as "opportunistic" and urged the voters in the state to choose NDA on the development plank.

Launching the NDA’s election campaign from Patna’s historic Gandhi maidan on Thursday by flagging off 160 motorised 'parivartan raths' to cover the state, Shah said the allilance between erstwhile bitter rivals–Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad–will not work at the ground level.

"For years, Nitishji kept on ranting on the jungle raj theme associated with Laluji but he has now been siding with him," Shah said, adding that the bad memories of jungle raj were still fresh in the minds of the people and they will not cast their vote for its return.

The BJP leader pointed out that the voters of Bihar will do well to keep in mind that the outcome of the assembly elections will send signals beyond the state. Other leaders of the NDA constituents, LJP's Ram Vilas Paswan, RLSP's Upendra Kushwaha and newest ally Jitan Ram Manjhi, were also present on the occasion.



The 160 parivartan raths, equipped with 55 inches LCD TV screens and GPRS tracking system, are expected to cover 43,000 villages in the next 100 days. The numerical strength of 'raths' symbolises the number of seats needed for the NDA to form government on its own. As part of the campaign the vans will play out video tapes of Narendra Modi's speeches and showcase the achievements of the Modi government.