In his desperation to win losing battle of Bihar, I'm afraid Modi might lose India, tweets Nitish Kumar

Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday expressed his astonishment over Prime Minister Narendra Modi's use of divisive language in his counter-attack on the JDU leader over his "Bahri" (outsider) jibe, in a tweet.

"Astonished at Modiji’s brazen use of divisive language. In his desperation to win the losing battle of Bihar, I'm afraid he might lose India" said Kumar in a tweet.

Addressing a rally in Bihar earlier on Friday, Modi asked the incumbent CM whether he would call Congress chief Sonia Gandhi also a 'bahri', asserting that he was not a PM of another country.

"Nitish babu says I am a bahri (outsider). I will ask (him) how I can be a bahri in Bihar which is a strong organ of India and whose people had voted to make me Prime Minister. Am I Pakistan's Prime Minister? Am I Bangladesh or Sri Lanka's Prime Minister?" said the Prime Minister.

"I will ask him if he also calls Madam Sonia, who lives in Delhi a bahri? Is she a bahri or Bihari? Those who cannot give an account of their work play these games to mislead them," Modi said.

Taking on his rivals in RJD chief Lalu Prasad's home turf of Gopalganj, Modi wondered if Kumar wanted the return of old days of 'jungle raj' when the region had turned into a 'mini Chambal', in a riposte to Kumar's barb that he (PM) should return to the country its 'old' days if he cannot deliver the promised 'achhe din' (good days).

On the last day of campaigning for the fourth phase of Bihar assembly polls on November 1, Modi focused on blunting the grand alliance attack on the BJP-led NDA and raised the development pitch, saying only "twin engines" of the state and central government can pull the backward state out of the pit it had fallen into.

He also escalated his attack on the JD(U) leader and Chief Minister over his charge that he and his allies were "plotting" to give away a share of reservation enjoyed by SCs, STs and OBCs to a particular community, a reference to Muslims.

Modi said Nitish in a speech in Parliament on August 24, 2005 had spoken about giving quota to a particular community. The grand alliance parties--Congress, RJD and JD(U)--together ruled the state for 60 years but were not able tell people what they did.