Betrayed by the JD(U), the BJP is planning to take on the ruling Bihar party on its turf. The two parties had been in alliance for the last 17 years and contested the 2010 Assembly election together with the JD(U) fielding candidates in 141 seats while the BJP contenting in the remaining 102 constituencies.
The BJP now plans to hold workers conferences in those 141 seats, which the JD(U) had been contesting in all these years. “Our workers in these seats did not get an opportunity to contest elections in all these year. We have to infuse new blood in them. The break-up comes with an opportunity to revive the party in these areas,” BJP spokesman Syed Shahnawaz Husain said.
During the meetings, BJP will apprise locals about the JD(U)’s betrayal to their mandate by splitting from the NDA and will tell them to ask their legislators as to why did they dump their ally.
The workers’ meeting in 141 assembly seats contested by the erstwhile ally has come close on the heels of Bihar bandh organised two days ago by the BJP to protest the JD(U)’s betrayal of the mandate.
“We also plan to undertake a Yatra after the monsoon. The yatra will focus these 141 constituencies. Our Bihar leaders will be involved,” Hussain said. BJP president Rajnath Singh is scheduled to hold a workers’ conference in Patna on June 23. The venue of this meeting had to be changed after the Nitish Kumar government denied permission to hold the conference at a local school ground.
State BJP unit will also hold a “Hunkar Rally” in Patna on October 27. Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi is likely to address this rally. This would be the first time in recent years that Modi would address a rally in Bihar. Modi was recently appointed the head of BJP’s campaign committee, irking the JD(U) to an extent that it decided to walk out of the NDA.
“People want a decisive, dynamic and development oriented leader and party. That is why they are looking towards the BJP and talking about Narendra Modi,” former BJP chief M Venkaiah Naidu said.