Amid the coronavirus pandemic, the BJP is set to unlock its poll campaign in Bihar next week with a “virtual rally” by Union Home Minister and former BJP president Amit Shah who will address the people of the State through video conference and Facebook Live.
Shah’s virtual rally will be followed up by BJP President J P Nadda’s “digital rally” in the State that is slated to go to polls in October-November this year to elect 243 members of the Bihar Legislative Assembly. The term of the current Assembly, elected in 2015, will expire on November 29, 2020.
The BJP has been sharing power with the JD(U), headed by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar since 2005, barring a four-year gap from 2013-17.
Bihar would be the focus of most of the 2,000 virtual video conferences, rallies or meetings announced across the States by the BJP in the next one month. The Central and State leaders, to begin with, will address and mobilise booth-level workers in the State through video-conferencing.
According to Bihar BJP President Sanjay Jaiswal, the party has set a target of roping in “at least one lakh people across the 243 Assembly segments in Bihar” for the video conference, besides those who may prefer to listen to the speech on the social networking site.
“The virtual rally can be verily called the commencement of our digital campaign for Assembly elections in Bihar. The June 9 rally by the Home Minister will be followed by similar public addresses from party president J P Nadda on a later date. Itinerary for the same will be made known in due course. Nadda is expected to address the people in two phases covering north and south Bihar," he said at Patna.
The Rashtriya Janata Dal is also planning to counter Shah’s “virtual rally” by its own “Garib Adhikar Divas” rally on June 9.
BJP’s national president this week said that Coronavirus has restricted the scope of real poll campaigning but the party would launch electioneering sticking to new norms of ‘social distancing’ and taking to face masks.
Bihar's Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, had, interestingly, spoken of the possibility of ‘virtual campaign’ and even ‘online voting’ replacing old-style rallies and the long queues outside polling booths in the times of pandemic.
The election commission will have the last say on the date of polling and the mode of campaign if the pandemic curve is not beaten effectively before the year-end, sources said.
While large gatherings are prohibited under what is being termed as ''Unlock 1.0'', it remains to be seen whether conventional poll campaign involving rallies and roadshows will be allowed by the time the election schedule is announced.
Rival parties in Bihar apprehend that a campaign restricted to the "digital" mode would be of disproportionate advantage to the BJP, which has a well-oiled IT cell, and by virtue of being in power at the Centre for more than six years, can marshal resources with far greater ease than its rivals.
Last moth, Nadda had addressed a meeting of Bihar core committee leaders through video-conferencing and exchanged views relating to electioneering, including the subject of stranded migrants from the State.