As the 17-year-old BJP-JD (U) alliance inches closer to the brink of collapse due to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s strong antipathy to his Gujarat counterpart Narendra Modi, the State BJP has plunged itself into an aggressive poll preparation on all 40 lok Sabha seats in the State for improving its tally in 2014 lok Sabha election.
The JD(U) has already dropped sufficient hints that the party might advance its December deadline for the BJP to name its Prime Ministerial candidate if the party finds it fit to do so. As the State BJP is already in the election mode, BJP president Rajnath Singh will visit Patna on June 23 for invigorating the grass-root party workers ahead of 2014 general election.
State BJP president Mangal Pandey told The Pioneer that his party was in favour of keeping the alliance with the JD(U) intact but if the alliance partner wants to desert the NDA, it is independent to do so.
He said that the JD(U) should acknowledge the fact that Narendra Modi was appointed the party election campaign committee chief unanimously and hence Modi’s elevation should be taken in that spirit only.
Reiterating that the JD(U) is free to desert the NDA if it finds its continuation in the alliance untenable, the State BJP president said that the party has already started making poll preparation in the right earnest. He said that booth committees would be constituted at all 56,000 booths in the State. He said that lists of booth committees would be presented to Rajnath Singh during his visit to Patna.
Besides listing of booth committees, the State BJP has also decided to organise workers’ meetings at various places in all such 141 Assembly segments where the JD (U) had contested the 2010 State Assembly election.
All these 141 Assembly segments will be covered from June 29 to July 2 in the first phase of the party programme, intended at strengthening the ground-level party organisational structure.
Remaining 102 seats will be covered in the second phase of the party programme. On the speculation over Narendra Modi visiting Bihar in July or August, Pandey said that the party has not chalked out any such programme.
Meanwhile, JD(U) MP from Begusarai Monajir Hasan told The Pioneer that the popularity of Nitish Kumar will scale a greater height among Muslims if the JD(U) severs its ties with the BJP on the issue of Narendra Modi’s growing stature in the BJP.
Though Muslims in Bihar are happy with the performance of Nitish Kumar, his support base among the minority community will increase if the JD(U) disassociates itself from Narendra Modi who is generally seen as an anti-Muslim leader.
On the issue of a vast chunk of Muslims voting for the JD (U) candidate in the Maharajganj by-election, the JD(U) MP claimed that some leaders from his own party divided Muslims on the caste lines before the bypoll, thus harming the interest of the party candidate and State Education Minister PK Shahi in the process.
Hassan said, though there is no caste division in the Muslim, the JD(U) leaders succeeded in their game plan and it is absolutely wrong to presume that Muslims have started losing confidence in Nitish.
A senior JD(U) leader on the condition of anonymity claimed that a large section of the party leaders view it is the right time to break alliance with the BJP but Nitish Kumar himself is in favour of adopting wait-and-watch strategy as he does not want that his party ultimately being blamed for taking a hasty decision on the alliance.
Though survival of alliance is already doubted by everybody, the top JD(U) leaders might prefer to wait until BJP announces its Prime Ministerial candidate for the 2014 lok Sabha election, the leader added.