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Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday told rain-soaked crowds across three Bihar rallies that Rahul Gandhi’s entry into the campaign had handed victory to the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance, as supporters braved heavy weather to chant “Jai Shri Ram” and “Har Har Mahadev.”

Addressing large gatherings in Siwan, Vaishali and Agiaon in Bhojpur, Yogi sought votes for NDA candidates including Mangal Pandey (Siwan), Karnajit Singh (Daraunda), Indradev Singh Patel (Barharia), Sanjay Kumar Singh (Lalganj, Vaishali) and Mahesh Paswan (Agiaon). He repeatedly contrasted the NDA’s record with what he described as the failures of the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal.

‘Lotus Blooms Even In Mud’

“Seeing people’s enthusiasm even in rain and mud proves the lotus blooms even in mud,” he said, invoking the BJP’s election symbol. He accused the Grand Alliance of nurturing “dynastic mafia rule” and warned that a return of Congress-RJD governance would restore an era of “loot, kidnappings and insecurity for women.”

At the Siwan rally, Yogi invoked historical imagery to bolster his argument. “The sons of Bihar, Chandragupta and Chanakya, once made India the golden bird,” he said, adding that Bihar’s youth deserved governance built on the foundations laid over the past two decades. He alleged that “the ideological heirs of those who destroyed Nalanda” were now seeking to hamper the state’s development “under the guise of political Islam.”

Yogi accused rival parties of profiteering and misrule. He said A legacy of alleged maladministration under Congress and RJD left the poor without rations and even saw animal fodder pilfered. “They talk about the poor while denying them basic entitlements,” he said, charging that the Indi alliance of Congress, CPI(ML) and RJD had historically deprived citizens of rights, failed to create jobs and driven farmers to migrate.

Drawing on Uttar Pradesh’s law-and-order record, Yogi said his government had “crushed the mafia” there and converted cleared land into housing for the poor. “Uttar Pradesh now stands as a model of heritage and development — no mafia, no corruption,” he said, and vowed the same would happen in Bihar.

At times his rhetoric turned sharply partisan. He derided communists as relics, saying they had “vanished from India and the world,” and lumped RJD, CPI(ML) and Congress together as “birds of the same feather.” In Bhojpur he proclaimed, “No more Lal Salaam, only Jai Shri Ram,” and criticised those he said opposed the Ram temple in Ayodhya and the Sita Maiya temple in Sitamarhi.

Yogi also referenced religious tourism and temple redevelopment, noting the expansion of facilities in Kashi that now welcome tens of thousands of devotees, and suggested those opposed to Ram were opposing the nation itself. “Those who are not with Ram are of no use; anti-nationals must be shown the door,” he said.