The BJP in Bihar will roll out 160 NaMo Raths (campaign chariots named after PM Narendra Modi) which will crisscross the entire State by stopping and holding corner meetings at one lakh places in 100 days. The party’s Assembly poll campaign will be kicked off from Muzaffarpur, 80 km north from the State capital Patna, on July 25 by Prime Minister Modi. Incidentally, Modi will be the face of the party in the Assembly election as the party is shy of projecting any State leader in the run-up to the crucial polls.
The BJP has strategised its campaign after the arch rival JD(U) launched its pre-poll exercise ‘Har Ghar Dastak’ with a target of knocking at one crore houses in the State and reaching out to over three crore people to seek their feedback about the Nitish Kumar Government in Bihar and their suggestions for making the system more responsible and effective.
Similarly, the BJP has a target to take its message to 43,000 villages through the motorised GPS device-fitted Raths with each Rath stopping at 500 points. All the 160 Raths will cover all the 243 Assembly constituencies and touch over 60,000 polling booths under them. The movement of these NaMo Raths, expected to roll out from next week, will be controlled from Delhi, party sources said.
“Our workers are the real force of our campaign. Neither the RJD nor the JD(U) has an army of such dedicated and committed workers. Our slogan ‘Abki bar Bhajpa sarkar’ has started renting the air in each village,” said senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi. leader of Opposition in Bihar Assembly Nand Kishore Yadav said the tremendous victory of BJP in lok Sabha polls was largely because of the attractive personality of Narendra Modi and the tireless efforts of party workers. “To fulfill the Mission-185 is a major challenge for party cadres and under the leadership of NaMo they will achieve it,” added State BJP president Mangal Pandey.
The party’s top State leaders, office bearers, MPs and legislators and district presidents had hectic meeting here, which was also attended by Union Minister and Bihar incharge Ananth Kumar, on Wednesday and Thursday where they were assigned their duties. Commenting on PM’s proposed visit on July 25, CM Nitish Kumar said sarcastically, “After 14 months he again remembered Bihar. Our PM is a very busy man and spends most of his time abroad, but thankfully sometimes he also visits India. Now let us see what package he announces for Bihar or just does some packaging.” Nitish however, hastened to add, “This time Bihar people will not come under his ‘jhansa’ (gimmicks) as they have realised their blunder of voting for BJP in May last. The people have no much expectation from him (Modi).”
The CM also reacted on poll related wall painting by the BJP and said the party was defacing the walls of the educational institutions and Government buildings which was violation of the rule. “With my hoardings at 10-20 places, they are going in depression and frustration,” he quipped.