lok Janashakti Party (lJP) supremo and Union Minister of Food and Consumer Affairs Ram Vilas Paswan said the NDA in Bihar (comprising BJP, lJP and RlSP) will contest the Assembly election under the NaMo banner and the Chief Minister will be elected after the polls.
Paswan’s statement has come at a time when the State BJP leaders are hopeful that the party may project a face like it did in Delhi. last week BJP president Amit Shah had explained that the BJP Parliamentary Board would decide whether to project a face or not at the appropriate time. But the Union Minister was very categorical while talking to The Pioneer on Thursday that like Haryana, Maharashtra and Jharkhand the BJP led NDA in Bihar will contest the October 2015 Assembly election only in the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi because public is in mood to support the alliance only for Modi. “let Modi be given a free hand to select a Chief Minister,” he added.
The lJP chief did not reveal the seat-sharing strategy but said the aim is to defeat the rivals even if they are united and oust the present State Government and install a NDA government. “The issue before us is not the number of seats for lJP and other ally but to win the election with a handsome majority,” he said.
However, in the political circles here it is debated in certain quarters that NDA may project or select a leader from Scheduled Caste after the Assembly polls.
A direct or indirect message could be conveyed to the Dalit society during the election since the present State Government has a Mahadalit Chief Minister in Jitan Ram Manjhi. Manjhi in his speeches too has been indicating that next Chief Minister would be from the SC without mentioning to which party he would belong to. long back, when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was Prime Minister he had reportedly desired to give charge of Bihar to Paswan. “The NDA has a Dalit stalwart like Ram Vilas Paswan whose joining hands with the BJP prior to lok Sabha elections immensely helped the BJP in Bihar,” said an lJP functionary.
Declining to comment on this possibility, Paswan said since BJP is a big National party its allies including lJP would work under the leadership of Narendra Modi and abide by his directives. “In the NDA there will be no clash either over the seat sharing or the election of the leader,” he said.
This apart there is a long list of State BJP leaders who are in the race for the office of Chief Minister. Prominent among them are former deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi, leader of Opposition in Bihar Assembly Nand Kishore Yadav and Union Minister of State Ram Kripal Yadav. RlSP leader and Union Minister Upendra Kushwaha is also in the race. All of them belong to backward category.
Paswan calls meet of Food Ministers on February 5
Patna: Union Minister of Food and Consumer Affairs Ram Vilas Paswan will hold a meeting of the Food and Consumer Protection Ministers and secretaries of 10 States including Bihar on February 5 at Rajgir. The meeting will review the implementation of food security scheme and also discuss ways to remove the hurdles in way of its effective implementation so that the scheme should reach to the targeted sections.