‘NDA will win in Bihar, Congress won’t touch double-digits’

LUCKNOW - The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) would return to power in Bihar, and the Congress’ strength would not reach “double digits” despite the “hard work” of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Shahnawaz Hussain said Tuesday.

“It is going to be a clean sweep for us. The BJP-Janata Dal-United (JD-U) will again be voted to power with a thumping majority. At the same time, Congress would even not reach the double digit mark in terms of winning the assembly seats… Though it’s true the MPs from Amethi (Rahul Gandhi) and Rae Bareli (Sonia Gandhi) really did hard work for their party,” he told reporters here, a day before counting of votes cast in Bihar’s six-phased assembly polls Oct 21-Nov 20.

“It would be a historic win for us. After winning Bihar, we would surely emerge as a winner in the 2014 general elections. We are quite confident about it,” Hussain added.

Attacking Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad, Hussain said: “The votes he (Lalu Prasad) used to get by instilling fear among the people of Bihar have now come to us. While people from all sections of the society have voted in our favour, the MY (Muslims-Yadavs) equation of Lalu Prasad has failed to work.”

“We have set up a development model for Bihar and on its basis, the people there have voted for us. We would continue to work for an all-round development of Bihar,” he added.

BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy, who also accompanied Hussain, later told reporters that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should take an immediate decision on a JPC (joint parliamentary committee) inquiry into the 2G spectrum scam.

“We will continue to demand for the JPC enquiry. We may also take up the issue with the public, if the need arises,” he said.