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Bihar Polls: PM Modi Silences Chirag Paswan Live On Stage In Begusarai, Signals 'Only Nitish Will Speak'

Bihar Election 2025: Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Begusarai on to a packed ground and loud cheers. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA)'s campaign for the Bihar Assembly elections officially began on October 24. An announcer on stage took the microphone and called the name of Lok Jan Shakti Party (Ram Vilas) or LJP (R) chief Chirag Paswan for a speech. The prime minister raised his eyebrows in a quick gesture toward Nitish Kumar. The message looked unmistakable. Nitish would speak, Chirag would not. The chief minister rose from his seat and addressed the crowd for close to 10 minutes. The prime minister listened with calm attention. Chirag remained on his chair. No one called him again. His turn disappeared. Modi took the microphone after Nitish. The crowd pulled out their phones. Flashlights lit up every section. He smiled and asked if anyone still needed a lantern in such bright light. He moved to the story of the mobile phone. In the years of Congress rule, he said, most people looked at a phone like a distant luxury. Only two factories made them in the entire country. Today, he said, India builds phones in more than 200 factories. Young people now earn from videos and content creation. Data costs almost nothing. Bihar watches its own future on glowing screens. The prime minister distributed soop (traditional hand-woven bamboo tray used during the Chhath festival rituals) to devotees right on stage. He remembered singer Sharda Sinha and her voice. The stage lights malfunctioned at one point. BJP leader and Union Minister Giriraj Singh grabbed a microphone and asked the lighting crew to fix it immediately. A moment of minor chaos flickered, but the show moved on without pause. The energy stayed high. The speech then entered the political battlefield. Modi shifted his tone and targeted the Opposition. He praised the NDA "unity". He took the names of Nitish Kumar, Chirag Paswan and Upendra Kushwaha and called them "sensible leaders". The "other side" - the Mahagathbandhan (the Opposition alliance of the Rashtriya Janata Dal or RJD, the Congress, the Left parties and the Vikassheel Insaan Party or VIP) - looked different in his words: "sticks, noise, chaos, no direction, strange fights among partners and a long chain of pushes, pulls, drops and falls". He reminded the crowd of the years that people still call "Jungle Raj" in Bihar. He spoke of nights filled with fear. Criminals walked with guns on silent roads. Factories stopped working and locked their gates. Families packed their lives and moved away to find safety and jobs. He said Begusarai and Barauni lost 10 years of growth during that time. He named the RJD as the force behind that long period of suffering. Modi had delivered a similar message earlier in the day in Samastipur. He began his campaign from Karpoori Gram where he spoke for 45 minutes and invoked "Jungle Raj" 17 times. The crowd again switched on phone flashlights. The lantern question returned. The signal felt clear. He pointed to the internet revolution that reached every home. He said that one GB of data costs no more than a cup of tea because a tea seller became the prime minister. He praised young video creators and called them the new force of Bihar. He raised a slogan from the stage. Bihar will move with new speed. The NDA government will return. He said that Bihar will break previous records under Nitish Kumar's leadership. He predicted the biggest mandate ever. He spoke about October 2005 when the RJD government under Chief Minister Rabri Devi was brought following polls in the state. He said Bihar got "freedom from the Jungle Raj" in that month, and Nitish Kumar began a new chapter of "sushasan" (good governance). He said that the "Congress and the RJD in Delhi did everything they could to make Bihar struggle during those early years. They felt anger at Nitish's rise and wanted revenge. They blocked projects that could help the state. They even threatened to break alliances if the Centre supported Nitish Kumar's government". Modi accused the RJD and the Congress of corruption. He said leaders facing trial on charges of theft now want to steal the legacy of Jan Nayak Karpoori Thakur. He claimed that Bihar will never accept such behaviour. He highlighted NDA policies on social justice. He said that backward and poor students did not have reservation in the national quota for medical seats earlier. His government gave that right. He said that justice feels real only when opportunity reaches the last person. He again reminded the gathering of crimes from the "Jungle Raj" era. "Murders and kidnappings hit daily life and women suffered the most. Youth lost hope. Families stopped trusting the police," he said. The prime minister went on to allege that some Mahagathbandhan candidates already speak in a manner that shows an intention to bring back those days. He called this election a moment to lock that era away forever. He then focussed on women and youth. He mentioned construction of toilets under the Swachch Bharat Abhiyan. He spoke about Ujjawala gas connections for kitchens. He talked about financial support for women searching for work. He called the future of young people the top priority of the NDA and claimed that the Opposition only cares about its own families. He gave instructions to workers, telling them to work like Haryana, to treat every booth as important and to act together with all NDA allies - the BJP, the JD(U), the LJP, the Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) and the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) - on one stage with one shared task. He said floods once left poor people in despair. They swam across the Ganga and walked hundreds of kilometres to reach safety. There were no bridges and no links between North and South Bihar. He said the NDA built bridges, constructed roads, opened new routes and brought new dreams to the state. He repeated the names of the Opposition alliance, describing it as a stuck group, a hanging group, a shaken group, a dragged group and a dropped group - a rope of mistrust where everyone was pulling everyone else down. He said the NDA had turned "Jungle Raj" into Su-shasan and added that now it was time for Su-shasan to transform into "samriddhi" (prosperity). He asked the people of Bihar for their blessings. He called the Congress a follower of the RJD in Bihar. He alleged the Congress has spent two decades with no separate identity in the state. He said that RJD even pushed away the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM). Isolation, according to him, grows inside the Mahagathbandhan camp. His campaign began from a JD(U) stronghold. In Samastipur, the JD(U) has fielded seven candidates, the BJP two and the LJP (R) one. Modi also addressed supporters for seven seats in Begusarai. The prime minister conveyed a message that the NDA seeks a fresh mandate and aims to accelerate development. He added that the era of lanterns is behind Bihar and suggested that the state now has the tools and resources to move forward on its own.

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