Wednesday, November 9 2005 18:00 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Darbhanga: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Advani today (Nov 09, 2005) blamed the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Congress for Bihar's backwardness rebutting charges of the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi against the erstwhile National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government of neglecting the state.

Addressing election rallies here and at Madhubani Advani held the RJD and the Congress responsible 'in equal measure' for 'absolute lack of development and anarchy' in Bihar.

"The RJD ruled Bihar for 15 long years and Congress lent overt and covert support to the government. Neither can escape responsibility for the ills plaguing the state", he said.

The people of Bihar have to make a choice now. They have to decide whether they want continuance of the 'same anarchy' or development, he said.

Claiming that the outcome of Bihar assembly elections would have its impact on national politics, he criticised the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for extolling RJD president and Railway minister Lalu Prasad as 'vikas purush' (the man of development).

Advani said if the electorate wanted to rebuild Bihar, they would have to give the NDA a clear mandate.

He assailed the Centre's UPA government for the 'unconstitutional' dissolution of the state assembly only to prevent the NDA from forming a government under Nitish Kumar and asked the voters to inflict a 'crushing electoral defeat' on the NDA's rivals.