Rahul Gandhi To Reach Gaya For Campaigning: Sources
NEW DELHI: Campaigning is steadily intensifying in Bihar ahead of the upcoming Assembly polls, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi scheduled to make his third visit to the State since April on 20 June. He will address a public rally in Siwan, a constituency held by NDA ally Janata Dal (United) and once considered a stronghold of former RJD MP Mohammad Shahabuddin.
Party sources say the Siwan programme is part of a series of trips the Prime Minister will undertake to bolster the BJP-led coalition in key poll-bound States. Modi’s return follows the success of “Operation Sindoor”, the cross-border strike that destroyed nine terror targets in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir on the night of 6–7 May.
The Opposition is also ramping up its outreach. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will visit Gaya on Friday to meet women’s groups and representatives of backward communities, before travelling to Rajgir for another interaction. He is expected to call on the family of the late “mountain man” Dashrath Manjhi in Gehlaur village and later address a gathering of backward-class voters.
On 24 April — two days after the Pahalgam terror attack — Modi had addressed a rally in Madhubani, warning that those responsible would face retribution; a fortnight later, Operation Sindoor was launched. During a subsequent two-day tour of Bihar on 29–30 May, the Prime Minister declared in a Patna rally that he had kept his promise to punish the perpetrators “beyond their imagination.”
In Siwan later this month, Modi is expected to lay foundation stones, inaugurate or dedicate to the nation development projects worth several crores of rupees before addressing the public meeting, party insiders said.
The visit will be his fourth to Bihar in five months: he unveiled major infrastructure schemes in Bhagalpur in February and is likely to make four or five additional trips before the Election Commission announces the poll schedule.
