DARBHANGA, May 4 -- Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday accused RJD president Lalu Prasad, the BJP's principal opponent in Bihar, of having tried to "shield" those guilty in two-decade-old Godhra train burning incident and "put blame on kar sevaks".

Addressing an election rally at Darbhanga, Modi, who was then the chief minister of Gujarat where riots had erupted after the incident in 2002, also alleged that the RJD supremo had acted in connivance with the Congress, which headed the UPA, which was in power at the Centre.

This is probably the first time Modi has raised the Godhra issue during the ongoing elections.

Without mentioning Prasad by name, Modi described the RJD supremo, who was the Railway minister in the first UPA gover...