Amid a game of political one-upmanship among ruling coalition alliance parties in Bihar ahead of the General Election, the State BJP has planned several large public meetings to be addressed by the party’s top central leadership in January and February.
Sources in the Bihar BJP said the party has planned ten mammoth public meetings to be addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi; Union Ministers Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, and Nitin Gadkari; and party president J. P. Nadda.
The party has planned three mega public meetings at Kishanganj, Begusarai, and Bihar’s Aurangabad to be addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“We have sent a request to the central parry leadership to fix programmes of these leaders for addressing public meetings. Structural changes have already been made in the organisation to ensure these meetings are a grand success,” State BJP president Samrat Choudhary said.
Sources in the party told The Hindu that the 40 parliamentary seats in Bihar have been grouped into 10 clusters: Patna, Magadh, Shahabad, Bhagalpur, Munger, Champaran, Saran, Purnia, Tirhut, and Mithila. “In the month of January, at least two-three big public meetings will be held, while six-eight meetings will be held in February,” a senior party leader, preferring anonymity, said.
In-charges have been selected for nine out of the 10 clusters (excepting Purnia). “Siddharth Shambhu, Rajendra Singh, Trivikram Narayan Singh, Saroj Ranjan Patel, Santosh Ranjan Rai, Pinki Kushwaha, Ratnesh Kushwaha, Rana Randhir Singh, and Sanjay Khandelia have been named as in-charge of the Shahabad, Munger, Tirhut, Champaran, Saran, Bhagalpur, Magadh, Mithila, and Patna clusters, respectively, and some of them are already camping in their areas to ensure the success of the meetings,” the source said.
“The State unit of the party wants the PM to address at least three public meetings. Union Home Minister Amit Shah too has to address two-three meetings, and the other leaders, including party chief J.P. Nadda, and Union Ministers Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari, have to address one-two meetings, in accordance with the demand in each of these 10 clusters,” the source added.
“This time, in 2024, the BJP has made plans to win all 40 seats in Bihar, and this time, the party will cross the mark of 400 seats across the country — abki bar 400 ke par,” Mr. Choudhary said.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the BJP had contested the elections with the JD(U), winning 17 out of the 40 seats, while the JD(U) took 16; the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) won six seats; and the Congress was able to win one seat (Kishanganj). The JD(U) snapped ties with the BJP in August 2022 to remain in government in an alliance with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the Congress, Left and other smaller parties in a mahagathbandhan (grand alliance).
Meanwhile, Social Welfare Minister in the JD(U)-led Bihar government Madan Sahni said his party president and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar should be made the prime ministerial face of the Opposition INDIA (Indian National Developmental, Inclusive Alliance) bloc. “Nitish Kumar is the most experienced leader and his popularity is pan Indian. Therefore, he should not be made convener of the bloc but the PM candidate,” Mr. Sahni said.
Mr. Kumar, however, had repeatedly maintained that he neither intended to have nor was desirous of any post in the INDIA bloc.
