This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/28/world/asia/blasts-fail-to-deter-opposition-rally-in-india.html

The article has changed 6 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 2 Version 3
Blasts Fail to Deter Opposition Rally in India Blasts Fail to Deter Opposition Rally in India
(about 5 hours later)
NEW DELHI — A series of low-intensity bombs exploded oon Sunday in the northeastern Indian city of Patna, targeting a rally featuring the opposition leader Narendra Modi, whose Bharatiya Janata Party hopes to unseat the long-dominant Congress party in national elections next spring. NEW DELHI — A series of low-intensity bombs exploded on Sunday in the northeastern city of Patna, apparently targeting a vast rally featuring the opposition leader Narendra Modi, whose Bharatiya Janata Party hopes to unseat the long-dominant Congress Party in national elections next spring.
Small blasts were reported at a Patna railway station and at the Gandhi Maidan, where tens of thousands of people were gathering to hear Mr. Modi speak. Five people were killed and 71 hospitalized, including four who were in critical condition, according to Amarkant Jha, the superintendent of Patna Medical College and Hospital. Five people were killed and 83 injured, the authorities said late Sunday.
By Sunday evening, the police said, four suspects had been detained, and the site of the rally had been cordoned off to search for devices that might not have detonated. Improvised explosive devices, fitted with wires and timers, exploded in a series of crowded places: at a railway station, outside a movie theater, near two landmark buildings, and two on Gandhi Maidan, where Mr. Modi was preparing to speak, according to Abhayanand, the state’s director general of police.
Party officials had touted the rally as the largest ever to be held in the state of Bihar, a high-stakes electoral battleground, and they decided to proceed despite the blasts. Members of the crowd roared in response as Mr. Modi invoked the Hindu epics, asking them to chant traditional battle cries. Four people were arrested Sunday afternoon, said Manu Maharaj, Patna’s district police chief. He said that one man was arrested at the scene of a blast and confessed to being involved, and that all four men in custody were being interrogated.
He appeared calm and jovial, making no mention of the explosions until the end of his speech, when he asked his supporters to “go in peace; no one should be hurt.” Bharatiya Janata Party officials had hailed the rally as the largest to be held in the state of Bihar, a high-stakes electoral battleground, and decided to proceed despite the blasts. An enormous crowd roared in response as Mr. Modi invoked the Hindu epics, asking them to chant traditional battle cries.
The president of Bharatiya Janata Party, Rajnath Singh, urged the crowd to renounce the Congress party. “For more than 55 years the Congress has ruled India,” he said. “They had enough time to make India a great country. They only increased poverty and betrayed the trust of the people.” Bihar has presented a problem for Mr. Modi’s party. Commanding 40 seats in the lower house of Parliament, the state will be critical if the Bharatiya Janata Party hopes to win a comfortable majority. But Bihar has a relatively large population of Muslim voters, many of whom are wary of Mr. Modi for his uncompromising stand in favor of his party’s Hindu-nationalist ideology.
Bihar, which has more than 40 seats in the lower house of Parliament, will be key if the B.J.P hopes to win a comfortable majority. The state has a relatively large population of Muslim voters wary of Mr. Modi, a controversial figure who represents an uncompromising strand of his party’s Hindu-nationalist ideology. The state’s top official, Nitish Kumar, broke off a longtime coalition with the Bharatiya Janata Party when it became clear that Mr. Modi was the probable candidate for prime minister.
The state’s top official, Nitish Kumar, broke off a longtime coalition with the B.J.P. when it became clear that Mr. Modi was the most likely prime ministerial candidate. Mr. Modi joked about the tension between the two men, saying that Mr. Kumar was hesitant to be seen eating at the same table with him at a state occasion, and he told him, “You can eat – there are no cameras here.” In comments to reporters on Sunday, Mr. Kumar described the blasts as “a well-planned conspiracy to disturb and vitiate the peaceful atmosphere of the state,” and appealed for harmony among India’s political parties. He refused to speculate on the theory that the blasts were set by Indian Mujahedeen, a banned Islamic militant group, but did suggest they may have aimed to divide the state on religious lines.
Mr. Modi’s event on Sunday, punctuated by the news about the explosions, managed to eclipse a simultaneous event organized by the Congress party in Delhi, featuring the governing coalition’s presumed prime ministerial candidate, Rahul Gandhi. “If it was to disturb the communal peace and harmony of the state, we all have to take it and fight it out jointly,” he said.
The Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh, called Mr. Kumar on Sunday, urging him to investigate the Patna blasts promptly and to punish those responsible. Mr. Modi, for his part, appeared calm and jovial at the rally, and the crowd erupted in cheers when he addressed them in Bhojpuri and Maithili, two local dialects. He said the Congress Party had failed miserably in its attempts to control inflation and unemployment, and contrasted his own humble background with the dynastic succession of the Nehru-Gandhi family.

Amarnath Tewary contributed reporting from Patna, India.

“I used to sell tea on trains,” Mr. Modi said. “Even the Railway Minister doesn’t have my experience of what one faces on trains.”
It was a note that appeared to resonate with the crowd. Amit, who said he had come to the rally from a village three hours to the north, said Indians are “tired of dynastic rule.”
“We have had the same family for 60 years,” he said.
“We don’t need this shehzada,” he added, using the Hindi word for prince to refer to Rahul Gandhi, who is the son and grandson of previous Indian prime ministers and is widely expected to be the Congress Party’s nominee for prime minister.
Throughout the day, speakers struggled to keep the crowd’s attention as five separate bomb blasts went off. Each time, the official speaking did not acknowledge the explosion, awkwardly continuing speeches and trying to maintain the momentum of the rally.
The Bharatiya Janata Party spared no expense in the run up to the rally, trying alternative tactics to bolster awareness and attendance. In a nod to Mr. Modi’s background as a tea seller, the party dispatched mobile tea vans throughout the city and gave “NaMo Tea Stall” posters to tea stands to brand themselves with the first two letters of Mr. Modi’s first and last names.
Mr. Modi’s event in Patna, with the unfolding drama of the explosions, did manage to eclipse a simultaneous rally organized by the Congress Party near New Delhi, headlined by Mr. Gandhi. The two events had been billed as “the battle of the rallies” by some journalists, but coverage favored Mr. Modi, and one observer noted on Twitter that she could not catch Mr. Gandhi’s speech because news channels “had him on mute.”

Amarnath Tewary and Zach Marks contributed reporting from Patna, India.