The North News
Motihari(Bihar), July 18
In a sharp political attack wrapped in a message of development, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday accused the Congress and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) of exploiting Bihar’s poor and socially marginalised for decades. Standing on the historic soil of Champaran in Motihari, he vowed to build a “Naya Bihar” under the banner of the National Democratic Alliance, declaring, “Phir ek baar NDA sarkar.”
Modi, who inaugurated and laid the foundation stones of over ₹7,000 crore worth of development projects in the eastern state, drew a powerful historical parallel: “This is the land that gave Gandhi a new direction. Let this same land now lead Bihar’s rebirth.” He positioned eastern India as a rising force in the global order, saying it was time for cities like Gaya and Patna to mirror the economic dynamism of Gurugram and Pune. “Just as the East is rising on the world stage, so must Eastern India rise within the nation,” he said.
Touting the NDA government’s record, Modi noted that Bihar had received nearly ₹9 lakh crore over the last 10 years — quadruple the amount under previous regimes. “They gave you political revenge. We gave you development,” he said, accusing former central governments of deliberately neglecting Bihar during Nitish Kumar’s earlier tenure. The Prime Minister spoke of tangible results: 60 lakh pucca houses built in Bihar under PM Awas Yojana — more than the population of Norway or Singapore — with 3 lakh families in Motihari alone benefiting. On Friday, 12,000 more received house keys, and another 40,000 poor families, largely Dalit and backward class, got funds to build homes.
He also praised women’s leadership in Bihar’s transformation. “There was a time when they had to hide ₹10. Today, 3.5 crore women here have Jan Dhan bank accounts,” he said. Over ₹1,000 crore has been disbursed to self-help groups in just six weeks, and pensions for widows, the elderly, and differently-abled have tripled.
