To give a fillip to the BJP’s aim to free Bihar from lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar, party president Amit Shah is visiting here on January 23. He will address the party office bearers, review the membership drive and brief the party rank and file on how to carry out an aggressive campaign in the ensuing Assembly election. He will also attend public meeting to mark the death anniversary of noted socialist leader and former Bihar CM Karpoori Thakur.
However, it is still not finalised where the public meeting would be held since the State Government has denied permission to hold it at Miller High School ground, opposite the BJP office, despite an assurance by the education Minister, said State party chief Mangal Pandey. He recalled that in the past also BJP was refused permission for the same venue for holding meeting of then party chief Rajnath Singh last year.
The BJP has finalised its agitational programmes for next three months which will culminate with a workers convention at Gandhi Maidan on April 14. Protests will be organised at all the block headquarters on February 13 to protest over deteriorating law and order situation and other local issues. This was declared at the concluding session of the two-day State executive meeting on Tuesday.
“The party has taken a strong pledge to root out the anti-people Government which is caught in a web of Nitish Kumar, lalu Prasad and Jitan Ram Manjhi,” said State BJP chief Pandey. “The JD(U) and RJD are scared of BJP and that is the reason they are going for merger,” added Pandey who only a day earlier had said that the proposed merger of the two parties would pose a big challenge to the BJP.
In its political resolution passed unanimously at the end of the meeting, the party pledged to work hard for a majority in the October 2015 Assembly election to save Bihar from the return of the jungle raj. Giving a slogan “Jiski kendra mein sarkar, uski Pradesh mein sarkar, chalo chalen Modi ke sath, tabhi hoga Bihar ka vikas” the party said the State would develop only when BJP led NDA forms Government here.
It is believed that it was BJP’s pre-poll exercise but the party is unlikely to project any State leader as CM probable. The senior leaders gave a broad hint that the election would be fought only in the name of Narendra Modi with mission 175. The Bihar Assembly has a strength of 243.
The party is also concentrating on membership drive and has fixed a target of enrolling 75 lakh members. BJP national vice president and in-charge of membership drive Dr Dinesh Sharma said that the experience of missed calls for enrolment as member has been hugely successful. “The drive will be observed as a Parva (festival) and continue till March 31. From November 1, 2014 with the renewal of the membership of PM Narendra Modi by party president Amit Shah till January 6 over 3.25 crore people have got registered as members. Over five crore people had tried to become members through missed calls but could not registered,” said Sharma who is also Mayor of lucknow.
He said membership has crossed 80 lakh in UP and Uttrakhand, 38 lakh in Gujarat, 24 lakh in Delhi, 11 lakh in Haryana, 23 lakh in Rajasthan and 13 lakh in West Bengal.