PM Modi.
Credit: PTI photo
Patna: Buoyed after the success of Operation Sindoor, in which India meticulously destroyed and decimated the terror hubs operating from Pakistan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi intends to hold a road show in Patna on May 29 to keep the patriotic fervour and emotional sentiments surcharged in the poll-bound State.
The move is significant in the sense that it was Modi, who, on April 24, just two days after Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 persons were killed, chose the land of Madhubani in Bihar to tell the world that “those involved in the heinous terror attack will be identified, traced and punished in such a way that it will be beyond their imagination.”
By May 7, Modi had fulfilled his promise made from the land of Bihar. Upbeat over the success of Operation Sindoor, Modi has now planned a two-day Bihar visit beginning May 29 where he will hold a road show in the State Capital and have a meeting with the BJP MPs, MLAs and MLCs. The next day, he will address a rally at Rohtas, which is quite close to his Lok Sabha constituency Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh.
“The Prime Minister will hold a meeting with the BJP leaders at the party headquarters here to get feedback on how to strengthen the organisation at the booth-level,” said Bihar BJP president Dilip Jaiswal.
PM's 'SOP Opera'
Besides inaugurating the newly-constructed Patna airport terminal, the Prime Minister is also slated to lay the foundation stone for a new airport at Bihta, around 30 kilometres from Patna.
“On May 30, the Prime Minister will address a rally at Bikramganj in Rohtas where he will also lay the foundation for Patna-Sasaram four-lane road,” said Jaiswal.
Aware of the fact that Bihar will have an Assembly elections in October and November for the 243-member House, Modi is also expected to dole out one sop after another. This includes NTPC’s 2400 MW power plant at Nabinagar in Aurangabad district of Bihar, besides road projects worth hundreds of crores in Gopalganj.
Poll Vault
“Modi is striking a balance between the development plank and emotive issues like caste. Having agreed to the caste census, Modi is giving a message that till he is at the helm, the development agenda won’t take a back-seat,” opined political commentator Ajay Kumar.
To buttress his point, he cited the figures of 2020 Assembly elections where the BJP, despite Modi and Nitish being on the same boat, could not emerge as the single largest party.
“During the 2020 Assembly elections, the RJD emerged as the single largest party with 75 seats while the BJP was marginally short with 74 seats. Since the RJD ally, the Congress, could win merely 19 seats out of 70 seats it contested, Tejaswi could not form his Government and the BJP came to power riding Nitish’s crutches. This year, in 2025, the BJP has set its eyes to emerge as the single largest party, with or without crutches (read: Nitish),” averred the political scientist.