PM Modi to unveil projects worth over ₹7,000 crore in Bihar on July 18

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to visit poll-bound Bihar again on July 18 to address a public meeting and unveil projects worth over ₹7,000 crores at Motihari in East Champaran district. This would be PM Modi’s fifth visit to the state since January this year. The Bihar Assembly elections will be held in October-November this year.

“Whenever he [PM Modi] comes to Bihar, people have huge expectations, and he does not let them down. In his earlier four visits to the State PM Modi had announced multiple projects for the development of Bihar,” said state BJP chief Dilip Jaiswal, who, along with other senior party leaders has regularly been visiting Motihari to oversee preparations for the PM’s visit on Friday (July 18). The PM is scheduled to address a public meeting at Gandhi Maidan in Motihari. “This would be PM Modi’s 53^rd visit to Bihar and sixth to Motihari in the last 11 years. For earlier Prime Ministers, Bihar was never a priority,” Mr. Jaiswal added. He will unveil projects related to rail, roads, rural development, and housing at the public meeting.

Earlier the PM had visited Bhagalpur, Madhubani, Rohtas, and Siwan districts to address public meetings while unveiling and laying foundation stones for projects worth several thousand crores. The PM will also flag off three trains.

‘Unparalleled event’

Former BJP MP from East Champaran Radha Mohan Singh said that “people from as many as 24 assembly constituencies of the region are likely to participate on Friday, to make it an unparalleled event.”

District administration has made elaborate security arrangements for the forthcoming visit of the Prime Minister at Motihari. “As many as 15 IPS officers, over four dozen Dy SPs, 100 Inspector rank officials, and over 10,000 police and paramilitary personnel will be deployed during the PM’s visit,” a senior police official at the state headquarters in Patna said. Top administrative officials have already visited the place, he added.

“The Prime Minister’s visit to East Champaran will definitely enthuse and boost the morale of our grassroots party leaders and workers. Yes, the PM is our star campaigner for the party ahead of the assembly elections,” a state BJP leader asserted. “He will keep coming before the polls, and his visits will definitely, uplift our party leaders and workers’ morale,” he added. Several public meetings have been scheduled for the Prime Minister in Bihar over the next two months, ahead of the assembly elections.

Basic issues

Meanwhile, Opposition leaders see nothing “unusual” in the Prime Minister’s regular visits to the election-bound State. “This is an election year, and every party leader is expected to address public meetings. But the Prime Minister should also speak about basic issues of unemployment, and migration, confronting the State. Of late, the law-and-order situation in the State has become alarming, and the PM must say something on this as well,” leader of the Opposition Tejashwi Yadav said. Mr. Yadav has regularly been raising public issues and making announcements on providing jobs and promoting industrialisation in the state. “But the Prime Minister will keep talking about the jungle raj issue to mislead common people,” RJD Rajya Sabha MP Manoj Jha said.

Opposition leaders also wanted the PM to address the “chaos & confusion” caused by the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state, the RJD leaders said. Earlier, Mr. Yadav had accused the Election Commission of “working on behalf of the BJP.”

JD(U) leader Neeraj Kumar countered, “He is the Prime Minister of the country, not only Bihar. He has to look after the development of the State along with the country. We welcome his visit to the state.”