The political parties in Bihar are warming up. The acts and utterances of its leaders are generating heat and dust. The new alliances are taking place and new parties are taking birth. And it is but natural since the most crucial Bihar Assembly election is nearing. The poll is likely to be held in early winter though, the players are girding up their loins to kickstart their campaign before the rivals hit the campaign trail.
The political atmosphere has already warmed up with the arrival of Central Ministers on almost daily basis and they are creating a poll atmosphere much before the election is notified.
Not to be left behind, the RJD and JD(U) are also spearheading their separate programmes across the State. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is expected to begin his tour to Assembly constituencies from the first week of July, informed State JD(U) chief Bashistha Narain Singh on Saturday.
RJD will hold divisional conferences of party workers for a fortnight beginning June 15. After that party supremo lalu Prasad will begin his tour of the constituencies.
Singh said Nitish and lalu would share the dais but no dates have been finalised yet. RJD sources said the two top leaders might campaign jointly only during the peak of election once poll dates and candidates are finalised.
While Nitish and lalu will be only star campaigner for their alliance, there will be a big team of NDA leaders including about a dozen Union Ministers and State leaders of BJP, lJP and RlSP besides former CM Jitan Ram Manjhi who has decided to align his Hindustani Awam Morcha with the NDA.
BJP has also announced its constituency wise programme, which started from Saturday. Senior leaders including Union Minister Radha Mohan Singh, Ram Kripal Yadav, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Giriraj Singh, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Dharmendar Pradhan, Sadhvi Niranjana Jyoti apart from other leaders like Sushil Kumar Modi, Nand Kishore Yadav, Dr CP Thakur, Shahnawaz Husain, Arjun Munda, Manoj Tiwary and many more have been assigned constituencies.
But one senior leader and once star campaigner for BJP Shatrughan Sinha, the party’s Patna Saheb MP, has been left out. A sulking Sinha, who was here and drove to lalu’s residence to greet on his birthday and also hailed the lalu-Nitish alliance, favoured that BJP should declare a captain (CM candidate) before the polls. “There are many leaders in the NDA who could be projected,” he said and named many ‘dabang’ leaders. On his role in the election, he said it was the job of the party leadership to take a decision. But he was visibly unhappy over being ignored despite his seniority, dedication and services to the party in the past.