Nitish Kumar, Sonia Gandhi Hit Out at PM Modi Over Land Ordinance

Sonia Gandhi, Nitish Kumar, Lalu Prasad share stage at a rally in Patna.

New Delhi:  At a mega rally in Patna today, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi  took on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on land acquisition bill today, saying he has been forced to bow “to the will of the people”.

“The rollback of the anti-farmer land bill is not PM Modi’s Mann ki Baat, it is the nation’s Mann ki Baat,” Mr Kumar said, referring to PM Modi’s comments this morning on his monthly radio programme. “Tomorrow the land bill will lapse and I have agreed to it,” the Prime Minister had said.

“The Modi government is an anti-farmer government. It snatches land from farmers to divide it among its handful of rich cronies,” Ms Gandhi had said, addressing the crowds before Mr Kumar.

The two leaders were sharing stage today with RJD chief Lalu Prasad at a rally attented by tens of thousands of people.

Billed the “Swabhiman rally” (self-respect rally) the gathering is the first big show of unity after Mr Kumar and Mr Prasad joined hands last year to defeat the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance in the coming assembly elections.

The JD(U) and the RJD will contest 100 seats each in the 243-member Bihar Assembly elections, scheduled to be held by November-end. The Congress will contest on 40 seats, the remaining three will be contested by Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party.