In BJP’s Bihar huddle, discussions held on meetings with allies and countering Opposition on SIR

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has drawn up a programme for joint meetings with all its alliance partners in every Assembly seat in Bihar, and intends to launch a counter on the issue of the offensive language aimed at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s mother during an Opposition rally in the State, as well as the Opposition’s campaign against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

At a strategy session of the BJP’s Bihar core group held in New Delhi, the party concentrated on campaign programmes and assessments of the political situation on the ground in the run-up to the Assembly polls in the State.

Bihar BJP State president Dilip Jaiswal said that seat-sharing arrangement with allies did not figure in the discussion as it was a call to be taken by the central leadership.

Candidate selection

He added that the election campaign committee will be announced soon and extensive measures will be put in place for the selection of candidates. It was decided, he said, to hold meetings of National Democratic Alliance (NDA) workers in every Assembly constituency by September 25.

BJP president J.P. Nadda and key State leaders, including Mr. Jaiswal, Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Kumar Sinha and Union Textiles Minister Giriraj Singh and Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai, besides national general secretary Vinod Tawde, who is in charge of Bihar, and co-incharge Deepak Prakash, were part of the deliberations. Sources present at the meeting said that 11 of the 12 core group leaders from the party’s Bihar unit attended the meeting. They added that it was the view among several party leaders that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s campaign against the SIR of electoral rolls in the State did not have any popular traction outside the support base of the Opposition.

Local issues

“It may even backfire for the Opposition as their campaign has pushed local issues related to governance and leadership out of the limelight,” said a leader present at the meeting.

The abuse aimed at Mr. Modi’s mother during a rally by the Opposition and the absence of any condemnation from INDIA bloc leaders would also cost the Opposition, said sources.

The NDA has called for a State-wide bandh on Thursday as it looks to step up its counter-offensive against the rivals following Mr. Modi’s sharp attack on the RJD-Congress-Left alliance over the issue.

A host of welfare measures announced by the State government led by JD(U) president and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has also boosted the NDA, the sources added. The election to the 243-member State Assembly is likely to be held in November.