New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has decided to go out to the people in Bihar to expose the “factory of lies” of the Janata Dal (United) – a reference to the claim that Prime Minister Narendra Modi joined the erstwhile JD(S) was. (U) leader RCP Singh joined the Union Cabinet without the consent of party supremo and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar.
This is one of the issues cited by JD(U) leaders earlier this month to justify the party’s decision to break alliance with the BJP and join hands with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).
The matter came up in the Bihar BJP core committee meeting on Tuesday. “During the meeting, (Union Home Minister) Amit Shah Yes Told Nitish Kumar is only lying about the RCP Singh case,” one of the leaders who attended the meeting told ThePrint.
“Kumar had approved Singh’s name as the JD(U) representative in the Modi government and the BJP needs to make people aware of this lie factory,” the leader said.
BJP’s Bihar unit is now planning the event “pole-shell”Hold rallies in the state, which will talk about how the CM has not only betrayed the BJP but also the people of Bihar, and how he is lying about the whole matter.
“These rallies will start at the district level and will focus on one lie at a time. At the same time, the BJP will keep the pressure on the internal contradictions that exist in this JD(U)-RJD alliance, and how it will take the state back to the era of ‘jungle raj’,” the leader said.
Former Union minister RCP Singh had resigned from the JD(U) earlier this month after the party sought his response on corruption allegations against him. He was at the center of the crisis that unfolded in the BJP-JD(U) alliance in Bihar.
On 7 August, JD(U) national president Rajeev Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh had said at a press meet in Patna that “the way the Chirag model was made in the 2020 assembly elections, the RCP model was to be built. A step was taken for this”. hurt JD(U).
He was referring to allegations that Lok Janshakti Party chief Chirag Paswan – a member of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) along with the BJP and the JD(U) – conspired with the BJP to sabotage the JD(U) seat. Was. 2020 by contesting the seats where JD(U) candidates were in the fray.
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BJP’s plan for Bihar
The BJP, which has remained politically isolated after the JD(U) entered into an alliance with the RJD, Congress and the Left (grand alliance), has now played the role of the new opposition of Bihar. Party sources said it plans to be more “aggressive” and keep the pressure on the “unholy” alliance created by the JD(U).
rural connectivity, Migrant Visiting BJP leaders and ministers, boosting the morale of workers and contesting elections on their own – this is the mantra the party now wants to adopt in Bihar.
Sources said the state unit has been asked to focus on strengthening booth committees. page Chief: – The workers are in charge of connecting with voters on a particular page of the electoral roll – to ensure that the party is visible in every nook and corner of the state.
“Amit Shah” Yes Insisted (in the meeting) that we need to strengthen the party at the booth level and reach out to the villages. JD(U) constituencies need special attention, as the BJP has not given them priority till now,” the leader was quoted as saying earlier.
With the term of Bihar BJP president Sanjay Jaiswal coming to an end, a section of the party is also of the view that the BJP should focus on the ‘upper’ castes as well as find a ‘credible’ face to challenge Nitish. needed. “Alignment with smaller parties is also on the cards, but it will be a focus area before the assembly polls,” the leader said. The next assembly elections in the state are to be held in 2025.
According to sources, BJP has decided to focus on rural areas and the Center’s free ration scheme.
A second BJP leader said: “For the past several months, party cadres have been demotivated as they were unable to work and had to line up at the insistence of the central leadership. The breakup of the coalition proves that they were right, and therefore the party needs to reach out to them and ensure that they are able to fight the new government more aggressively. ,
Before breaking up with the JD(U), Shah had announced last month that the BJP would contest again with its ally.
A third senior BJP leader said: “The meeting went on for several hours, but the main message for everyone was that the BJP has to start preparing for the election on its own. How long can it use coalition partners as crutches? The party is not against alliances with smaller parties, but it itself should be prepared.
it’s not easy going alone
During the brainstorming session of the core committee, strengthening the Bihar unit was a major point of discussion as the BJP has set an ambitious target of winning 35 of the state’s 40 Lok Sabha seats in the 2024 general election.
At present, the BJP has 17 seats, while the JD(U) has 16. With the BJP planning to go it alone in the next election, the target is likely to be more difficult to achieve, taking into account the caste arithmetic and the JD(U). )-RJD alliance.
In the 2020 Bihar election, the BJP had emerged as the single largest NDA ally with 74 seats against the JD(U)’s 43 (now 45). RJD currently has 80 seats.
Speaking to ThePrint, a fourth senior BJP leader said that the core committee members — including former Bihar deputy CMs Sushil Modi, Union ministers Giriraj Singh and Nityanand Rai, and former Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad — would be given charge of specific districts. will be given and we will Migrant (tour).
“The idea is also to reach out to those communities which have so far been taken care of by our former ally JD(U), which includes the Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs) and Mahadalits,” the leader said.
He said that “many schemes were announced by the Narendra Modi government at the Center – and Nitish Kumar’s government in Bihar took the credit because we were in alliance.”
“Our workers now have to reach out to these communities and make them aware that it is the BJP government that has taken decisions for their welfare and how such measures will continue in future,” the leader explained.
Both these communities (EBCs and Mahadalits) were closely cultivated by the JD(U) through welfare schemes and reservations, and BJP leaders feel that the JD(U) is taking advantage of it.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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