UPA woos Nitish as Modi attacks him for breaking alliance with BJP

In its bid to reach out at Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, the Union Rural Development Ministry has approved Rs 4,000 crore for the construction of 5,700 km of rural roads, highest allotment for the state in the past 12 years.
"I'm happy that today I'll inform Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar that Rs 4000 crore have been anctioned for the state. This is the biggest package sanctioned for Bihar till date," said union Minister Jairam Ramesh.
The BJP's poll panel chief came down heavily on Nitish Kumar on Saturday after the JD(U) and BJP terminated their 17-year-old alliance. With a tele-conference address to 1,500 BJP leaders and workers, Modi made a virtual entry into Nitish's turf, while sitting miles away in Gandhinagar.

"Narendra Modi has to prepare for the upcoming elections and teach a lesson to Nitish Kumar," BJP MLA Nitin Naveen said.
At the BJP office in Patna, state leaders and workers geared up for their direct interaction with campaign chief Modi, who is expected to steer them to victory next year. With the strained ties between Nitish and Modi being common knowledge, the choice of Bihar was a well-planned move by the BJP.
JD(U) hit out at BJP and said that the party is remote controlled. "BJP runs from remote. Earlier, the remote was controlled by Nagpur, now it's controlled by Gujarat," JD(U) MLC and spokesperson Niraj Singh said.
Modi's message to the party's Bihar unit was loud and clear and left no doubt that both the Congress and JD(U) had to be treated as equal adversaries.
An hour-long phone conversation of Narendra Modi has set the political temperature soaring in Bihar and in days to come, the BJP will play up the Modi card to take on Nitish.