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Amit Shah, JP Nadda meet Bihar BJP leaders with eye on polls
The meeting, chaired by party president Nadda, came a week after the collapse of the BJP’s alliance with the Janta Dal (United) that pulled out of the coalition government in Bihar.
As the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) begins preparations for the 2024 general elections and the 2025 state elections in Bihar, where it is expected to face a formidable opposition, the party’s core group for the state met in the Capital on Tuesday to chalk out a strategy, functionaries aware of developments said.
The meeting, chaired by party president JP Nadda, comes a week after the collapse of the BJP’s alliance with the Janta Dal (United) that pulled out of the coalition government in Bihar and joined forces with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) to form the government.
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According to one of the functionaries mentioned above, the meeting, which was attended by Union home minister Amit Shah, BJP national general secretary (organisation) BL Santhosh, state unit president Sanjay Jaiswal, former Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad among others, took stock of the recent developments that led to the party being ousted from power in Bihar.
The functionary said the party will take a call on carrying out a rejig in the state unit and work out a plan for carrying out outreach programmes to connect with voters across castes and communities to prepare for the 2025 assembly elections. A change in leadership in both, the legislative council as well as assembly, is also expected though this was not discussed at Tuesday’s meeting. “These are issues that the party will discuss in the coming days,” the first functionary said.
After the meeting, Jaiswal told reporters that the party had set a target of winning more than 35 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “This new alliance is a betrayal of the people and it gives backdoor entry to Lalu Raj…” he said.
A second functionary who did not want to be named said the party will spread out across the state with the message that the JD(U)’s decision to ally with the RJD does not augur well for the people as it will mark the return of law and order problems witnessed during the RJD rule.
The functionary said the party will also focus on strengthening its presence at the booth level, particularly in those constituencies that are a stronghold of the JD(U). HT has reported on August 9 that after breaking ties with the JD(U), which has a strong support group among the economically-backward classes, the Mahadalits and the Kurmis (OBCs), the BJP has identified three main constituencies to focus on— women, Dalits and the EBCs.
