With the Janata Dal(U) walking out of the National Democratic Alliance, the BJP has to consider not just projecting a chief ministerial face for the 2025 Assembly election in Bihar but also undertake a search for a new State unit chief, preferably belonging to the Extremely Backward Classes (EBC).
Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s disclosure in Bihar a couple of weeks ago that the BJP would be projecting a chief ministerial candidate was the first signal that the party was thinking deep and hard on just how to counter the formidable alliance of the Janata Dal(U) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and its caste arithmetic.
“Right off the bat, you must understand that any candidate, either for Chief Minister or the State unit president [soon to be appointed], will not be an upper caste,” said a senior Bihar BJP leader.
The first order of business for the national leadership is of appointing a new State president. Sources in the party say that Pradeep Singh, Araria MP, Ajay Nishad, Muzzaffarpur MP and son of Jainarayan Nishad, have been called to Delhi and have been here for the past three days.
“Both these MPs belong to the EBCs, a section, after aligning first with the RJD and then shifting to the JD(U) under Nitish Kumar, that has also given the BJP support after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s advent on the scene. Unlike in U.P., the BJP in Bihar is still very much perceived as an upper caste party, and a solid support base for it. By appointing an EBC State president, the BJP will be signalling that EBCs needn’t align with the JD(U)-RJD alliance,” said a source.
As far as chief ministerial faces are concerned, pending any other State-level leader (non upper caste) emerging on the scene, Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai and Leader of the Opposition in the Bihar Legislative Council Samrat Chaudhary are the top claimants.
Apart from the face and leadership issues, Mr. Shah’s visit to Bihar was important in other ways too. He asked each of the party MPs, MLAs and MLCs in the State to adopt two Assembly constituencies and help set up booth committees on each of the polling booths on those seats. Mr. Shah promised that he would be visiting Bihar at least once a month here on.
