Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday attacked the opposition RJD over its manifesto promise of providing 10 lakh government jobs if it formed the government.
Speaking at a rally in Parbatta, Nitish said, "Bogus baat hai (it's all bogus)". "These people keep saying we will give you jobs... all this is bogus talk. They will say anything at all. They will try to mislead and confuse people," Nitish was quoted as saying by NDTV.
During a rally on Thursday, Nitish pointed out his administration had given "over six lakh jobs" in 15 years, while in the tenure of Lalu Prasad Yadav and his wife Rabri Devi from 1990 to 2005, only 95,000 jobs were created.
Speaking at a rally on Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi described the RJD's promise of 10 lakh government jobs as "hawa hawai (empty promises)".
"Forget about government jobs. If they succeed (in winning), Bihar will lose jobs even in the private sector. The party has copyright over kidnappings and companies will be forced to shut shop and flee as they will be under duress because of extortion calls," Modi alleged.
The promise by the RJD of creating 10 lakh government jobs has been matched by the BJP, Nitish Kumar's ally. In its manifesto released on October 22, the BJP promised to create 4 lakh government jobs and up to 15 lakh employment opportunities.
The JD(U) is fighting on 115 seats and the BJP on 110 seats in the elections to the 243-seat Bihar Assembly with their two smaller allies contesting on the remaining 18.
While the BJP has asserted that Nitish Kumar will again be chief minister irrespective of the number of seats the two parties win if the NDA gets a majority, a drastic difference in their tallies in favour of the saffron party may realign the power equation within the alliance forever. The JD(U) has been winning more seats than the BJP in Assembly elections, but there is a view that this may change in these polls.