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Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday hit the campaign trail and took potshots at the Bharatiya Janata Party for pushing elderly leaders to the "corner" and giving preference to "outsiders".
Kumar had been away from public glare after hitting out at his rival Narendra Modi at a press conference on March 9 for showing Bihar in poor light at the latter’s Purnea rally.
Nitish resumed his campaign on Tuesday with a whirlwind tour of Dehri-On-Sone, Sasaram and Aurangabad seeking votes for the Janata Dal-United nominees.
Addressing an election meeting at Dehri-On-Sone, the Bihar chief minister in an apparent dig at the BJP, hit out at the party for "cornering" its elderly leaders to give preference to "outsiders."
He, however, did not name L K Advani, Jaswant Singh or Lal Muni Choubey.
In a scathing attack at the BJP for coining a slogan in favour of Narendra Modi in tune with Lord Mahadev, Kumar said, "Banaras atey hi har har mahadev ke naare se mahadev ko bhaga diya (you have removed the name of Mahadev from the famous chant of Har Har Mahadev with your arrival at Varanasi)."
He also ridiculed the propagation of the Gujarat model of development.
"People are not tired of praising the Gujarat model of development... but somebody should ask them why tribals there are still a poor lot," he said.
On rival Lalu Prasad, Nitish said Bihar would not like to return to bad days under his party rule.
He listed development records of his government and also expressed resolve to win special category status for Bihar.
Senior minister in Kumar's government Vijay Chaudhary and district level Communist Party of India leaders also addressed the rally.