Union Home Minister Amit Shah Friday accused the Congress and the RJD of “defending infiltrators” for vote-bank politics by criticising the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar.
Shah was speaking in Bihar’s Sitamarhi district after laying the foundation of a `900-crore redevelopment project for the Mata Janaki temple at Punaura Dham, considered the birthplace of Goddess Sita.
“Rahul Gandhi should stop this vote-bank politics,” Shah said. He claimed: “This voter list purification is not happening for the first time, your great-grandfather (former PM Jawaharlal) Nehru had initiated it. Since you are losing election after election, you are giving excuses in advance for the Bihar polls.”
Shah said: “The Election Commission released the draft list and neither the Congress nor the RJD submitted a single objection. So who exactly are you defending? Those who come from Bangladesh and take away jobs meant for Bihar’s youth?”
Targeting RJD chief Lalu Prasad, he said: “If Lalu and his company want votes of infiltrators, the people of Bihar will not accept them.” Shah vowed that “infiltrators” would be removed from the voter list.
He also accused the Congress of ignoring national security during its tenure. “Under Congress rule, bomb blasts would happen and terrorists would escape to Pakistan, no one dared to question them. But when Modi ji came to power, we carried out a surgical strike after Uri, an airstrike after Pulwama, and in response to the Pahalgam attack, we launched ‘Operation Sindoor’ and eliminated terrorists inside Pakistan’s territory.”
He took aim at the RJD’s long rule in Bihar. “Tejashwi Yadav ji, your father and mother ruled Bihar for years. Apart from promoting goondaism, kidnapping, and running mafias, what did they do for the development of Mithilanchal? You are demanding accountability from me, I’ve come with the full accounting on behalf of Modi ji.”
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“Main to baniye ka beta hoon, aana paayi ka hisaab lekar aaya hoon (I’m a baniya’s son, I’ve come with every penny accounted for),” Shah added.
Listing out multiple infrastructure and development projects including roads, bridges, rail, irrigation, flood management, Shah said the NDA government has given over Rs 83,000 crore to Bihar in the last six visits of Modi.
“But above all, the most important work done today is laying the foundation for the grand Janaki temple,” he said, calling the temple foundation-laying a turning point in religious tourism for the state.
He also hailed Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for committing hundreds of crores towards the redevelopment of the temple, located around 5 km from Sitamarhi town near the India-Nepal border.
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The initiative, which aims to emulate the scale of Ayodhya’s Ram temple, will see the establishment of a grand temple complex over a 67-acre area, with the project targeted for completion in 11 months. Nitish and several cabinet colleagues will join Shah for the ceremony, which is set to be held on Thursday.
The temple project is part of the Ramayana circuit, a broader initiative linking Ayodhya, Sitamarhi and Janakpur in Nepal, to facilitate religious tourism and pilgrimage routes.
On July 1, the Bihar cabinet sanctioned `882.87 crore for the integrated development of the temple premises. Out of this, `137 crore is for the renovation of the existing temple and its surroundings, `728 crore for tourism-related infrastructure and `16 crore for a decade of comprehensive maintenance.
At another cabinet meeting on July 29, a revised estimate of `165.57 crore was also cleared for the acquisition of an additional 50 acres, beyond the 17 acres currently available at Punaura Dham temple premises. The new land will be used for developing tourism infrastructure and related facilities.
