Patna (Bihar): The ruling Janata Dal (United) Tuesday hit the road launching Satarkata and Jagrukta march (Vigilance and Awareness march) to make people aware of the allegedly destructive designs of the BJP to disturb the communal and social harmony in the state.
The foot march was launched across the state in all the blocks and saw MLAs and MPs of JDU participating. JDU national president Rajiv Ranjan alias Lalan Singh, JDU parliamentary board chairman Upendra Kushwaha and party state unit president Umesh Kushwaha led the march in Patna along with thousands of JDU workers. The march started from Ambedkar Chowk near Patna High Court and ended at Gandhi Maidan.
The march was seen as the counterattack of JDU in response to the recent visit of union home minister Amit Shah to Seemanchal region in which he had slammed both Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and RJD supremo Lalu Prasad. Speaking to ETV Bharat, JDU national president Lalan Singh said, "We have launched the awareness campaign against BJP as the saffron party wants to hamper the communal harmony in the country.
They want to promote a religious frenzy. We are also making people aware of how dangerous the BJP is for the country. BJP is not talking about price rise and unemployment which are two volatile issues in India. The BJP does not want to do any debate on it. The BJP is diverting the issue by playing the communal card."
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Before hitting the road, Lalan Singh took a dig at BJP leader and Rajya Sabha member Sushil Kumar Modi for raising the question of Lalu and Nitish meeting Sonia Gandhi. Lalan posted a tweet from his official Twitter handle claiming that Sushil Modi is going to become the state BJP president.
“I saw your statement in which you said that Sonia Gandhi did not leave Nitish ji till the door after the meeting. I have heard that you are being demoted as the new BJP state president which you occupied 15 years ago. I really feel pity on you,” Singh wrote on his Twitter handle. Sushil too hit back by releasing a statement in which he mocked Lalan claiming that soon he will become Munger district president of JDU.
“There is no tradition in BJP to make anyone the state president again after 17 years. Yes, I have definitely heard that Nitish ji is going to make Lalan ji the district president of Munger very soon,” Modi said. Upendra Kushwaha on the other hand claimed that JDU will "expose the conspiracy" of BJP which is all out to create "communal tension in society".
“Without doing anything, BJP wants to divert the real issue by disrupting the communal harmony in society. We are taking these issues to the people of Bihar so that BJP Mukt Bharat could be achieved in the 2024 general election. This awareness march will send a strong message among the people to live in peace and harmony and not to get trapped in the conspiracy of BJP,” Upendra Kushwaha told ETV Bharat during the march.
BJP state unit president Sanjay Jaiswal made a veiled attack on chief minister Nitish Kumar on JDU's awareness campaign led by Lalan Singh. Jaiswal posted a tweet from his official Twitter handle saying, "Hearty congratulations and best wishes to honorable Chief Minister Nitish Kumar ji for becoming a disciple of Lalan Singh ji. It is expected that Bihar will soon see Nitish Kumar in a bigger role than Lalan Singh ji from 1974 to 1995 and the work he used to do.”
BJP OBC morcha's national general secretary and Bihar BJP Spokesperson Dr. Nikhil Anand reacted to the march and said that the people of Bihar need to be alert and aware of Nitish Kumar the most.a
