At the Bihar BJP Core Committee meeting conducted at party headquarters here on Tuesday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah reportedly told the party leaders that Nitish Kumar has been repeatedly lying about facts and accusing the BJP of trying to break the Janata Dal-United.
The core committee meeting was attended besides Shah by BJP national president J P Nadda, Bihar BJP state president Sanjay Jaiswal, General Secretary (Organisation) BL Santosh, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Sahnawaz Hussain, Mangal Pandey, Janak Ram, Nand Kishore Yadav and several other leaders from Bihar BJP.
During the meeting, the BJP discussed a detailed strategy for the expansion of the organisation in the whole of the state. The party has also prepared a strategy to win more than 35 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in the state in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
After the meeting, Jaiswal said, "The Mahagathbandhan in Bihar is an alliance of deceiving the people. BJP will fight against it from the street to the state Assembly. The part has set the target of winning 35 seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections."
"There has been a very thorough and detailed discussion on all the issues. It is well known that this coalition betrays the people and this is a backdoor alliance which is trying to re-establish Lalu Raj," he added.
Jaiswal said the BJP will set the record by winning more than 35 seats in Bihar in the 2024 general elections. There are 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar out of which 17 are presently held by the BJP while JD(U) has 16 seats. Further, Lok Janshakti Party has six seats and Congress has one seat.
In the meeting Shah reportedly said Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had endorsed now estranged aide RCP Singh as the Janata Dal United face in Union cabinet.
According to sources, responding to Nitish Kumar's charge that he did not approve Singh's selection as JD(U)'s representative in the Union cabinet, Shah said, "Galat bola", meaning, "he's lying".
The Home Minister said Kumar wanted two cabinet berths, but when he was told that the BJP could only offer one, he had endorsed Singh's name. Shah had then assured the Bihar Chief Minister of a rethink on his demand later, sources said.