This Is Not Election Campaign, Want To Salute Corona Warriors: Amit Shah In Virtual Address To Bihar

Amit Shah held a digital rally in Bihar on Sunday. BJP leaders and workers have made special preparations for the rally.

Photo: ANI

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Union Home Minister Amit Shah flagged off the first poll campaign for Bihar Assembly elections and took a smart dig at Rashtriya Janata Dal members saying that his virtual rally is not an election campaign but an opportunity to 'thank corona warriors'.

While addressing the people of Bihar on Sunday afternoon via virtual conferencing, BJP leader recalled Narendra Modi government's performance over the past six years as well as during the tough phase of Coronavirus Pandemic.

Shah said, "I want to salute the crores of corona warriors who are fighting against the virus by risking their lives. Health workers, police personnel and others, I want to acknowledge their contribution."

Elections in Bihar are slated for October-November. The saffron party has shifted towards a digital mode of campaigning in the poll-bound state due to the imposed restrictions to hold any big political gathering across the country to prevent the spread of deadly Coronavirus that has already infected over 2 lakh people in India.

In a protest against Shah’s rally, Tejashwi, her elder brother Tej Pratap Yadav alongside mother Rabri Devi, clanged steel utensils outside house calling Shah’s rally an attempt to celebrate the ‘devastation caused by Corona’. RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav had raised objection over digital rally saying that running an election campaign in the country during the Coronavirus crisis is an attempt to take political advantage.

In a response to Rashtriya Janata Dal party member’s act of beating utensils and blowing conches at a protest hours before Shah's rally, BJP leader Amit Shah said, "Some people welcomed our today's virtual rally by clanging 'thalis'. I am glad they finally heard PM Modi's appeal to show gratitude towards those fighting COVID19."

BJP, the JD(U) and the LJP are part of the NDA in the state and will be challenged by the alliance of the RJD and the Congress besides some smaller parties in the assembly polls.

In the 2015 Assembly Elections, the NDA had lost badly to the grand alliance of the RJD-JD(U)-Congress but Nitish Kumar later broke ties with his allies in 2017 and entered the saffron alliance again after a gap of over four years.