Bihar Polls: Narendra Modi, Rahul Gandhi to visit state on October 28 for 2nd round of campaigning

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will visit Bihar on Wednesday to campaign for their respective alliances in the high-voltage state assembly polls.

This will be the second electoral visit of the two leaders to Bihar. Both of them had plunged into campaigning for the three-phased state assembly elections on October 23 and addressed a series of rallies.

Modi will address three public meetings at Darbhanga, Muzaffarpur and Patna to garner support for the NDA nominees in constituencies that will go to the polls in the second phase on November 3.

Rahul Gandhi, who will visit Bihar on the same day as the prime minister, will address rallies at Valmiki Nagar and Kusheshwar Asthan in Darbhanga district to canvass for the Grand Alliance.

The by-poll to Valmiki Nagar Lok Sabha seat will be held on November 3 along with the second round of voting in the state elections.

Modi and Rahul Gandhi had kicked off their campaign in battleground Bihar on Friday last week.

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While Modi had addressed three back to back rallies at Dehri-On-Sone in Rohtas district, Gaya and Bhagalpur, the Congress leader had his meetings at Hisua in Nawada and Kahalgaon in Bhagalpur district.

The two leaders had gone for each other's jugular over the Chinese intrusion in Ladakh and both cried "insult" to soldiers and their families. The abrogation of Article 370, farm sector reform laws, "jungle raj" during the 15 years of RJD dispensation, the migrant crisis and joblessness too figured prominently in the bitter electoral discourse.

With the rallies taking place at a time when Covid-19 is raging in Bihar, elaborate arrangements have been made keeping in mind the regulations for the deadly virus.

A report from Darbhanga said that senior officials of the Special Protection Group (SPG), who provide security to the prime minister, held meeting with Darbhanga district magistrate S M Thyagrajan to ensure Covid guidelines are followed at the rally venue.

Officials said that no one will be allowed inside the venue without face masks and people who will be on the dais with the prime minister have undergone RT-PCR tests. NDA candidates from across the district will sit on a separate dais near to the main one, they said.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and BJP general secretary Bhupendra Yadav will be present on the occasion.

In Muzaffarpur, the Prime Minister's rally will be held at Motipur, around 30 km from the district headquarters. A limited number of chairs have been put in the field where the rally will be held. The chairs have been placed inside circles marked at a distance from each other.

In capital Patna, the public meeting will be held at the Veterinary College ground near the airport. Incidentally, the Veterinary College premises had been home to RJD supremo Lalu Prasad who had stayed for a long time in the early part of his early life in the quarters of his brother, who was a peon in the college.

When Prasad was sent to jail in the multi-crore rupees fodder scam in July 1997, he was initially kept in the college guest house before being forwarded to Beur jail here.