Union minister and Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan on Sunday lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi for handling the situation post the Pulwama suicide attack firmly.

“Earlier, we used to say that the prime minister’s chest is 56 inches,” the Union minister said while addressing an NDA rally in Bihar’s Patna. “But, today, the Gandhi Maidan is honouring you by saying that Narendra Modi’s chest size is not 56 inches, but 156 inches.”

The “56-inch chest” is a phrase that Modi often used to describe himself ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

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Paswan said the government has won the “battle of bullet” and that the National Democratic Alliance will win the battle of ballots in the Lok Sabha polls, PTI reported. Paswan said Modi was ahead with the policy of carrying out “Buddha and Yudha”.

“We need Buddha [peace] but if the need arises, we can also resort to ‘Yudha’ [war],” he said. “We are fighting the battle of both bullet and ballots. We need both Buddha and Yudha.”

He exuded confidence that the National Democratic Alliance will win 400 parliamentary seats across the country. The Bharatiya Janata Party and Janata Dal (United) will contest on 17 seats each in the Lok Sabha elections in Bihar.

Modi, while addressing the rally, hit out at the Opposition parties for allegedly questioning the armed forces following the recent air strike in Pakistan. The Opposition’s statements over the air strike on terror camps have made the “enemies happy”, the prime minister claimed.