Saturday, December 10 2005 18:18 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Ranchi: In a veiled attack on the Rashtriya Janata Party (RJD) for allegedly treating dalits and minorities as vote banks for the past 15 years, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President L K Advani today (Dec 10, 2005) said the period was marked by jungle raj when development was put in the back burner.

"To win elections, one has to have vote banks. And that party (RJD) succeeded in winning thrice and the jungle raj continued for 15 years till the Janata Dal-United (JD-U)- Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), under the leadership of Nitish Kumar, overthrew the Government with the help of the aware voters," he told a meeting of BJP's tribal cell here.

"The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) victory in Bihar was a chamatkar (wonder) in the country," he said congratulating the voters for their awareness of the need for development of the state.

Taking a swipe at RJD President Lalu Prasad Yadav, he said the former used to question the need for rural road network and rural electrification saying if there was need for anything it was to set up vote banks.