BJP drops old leaders in Bihar 'makeover'

The BJP in Bihar is looking towards change in preparation for the next Lok Sabha elections, as it has dropped several old leaders from the NDA government in the state.

Patna (Bihar):The performance of the BJP in the recently concluded Bihar assembly election has made it mandatory for the party to review its success and consolidate its organisation. It is a challenge for the party to bring change in the state leadership and assign responsibilities to new party leaders. The party is also concerned about its preparation for the next Lok Sabha elections. Keeping this in mind, the party has dropped many old leaders from the NDA government in Bihar.

Departing of Sushil Modi

After the formation of the coalition government between JDU and BJP in Bihar, as the deputy chief minister, Sushil Modi was considered a trusted partner of chief minister Nitish Kumar. Sushil Modi was the deputy chief minister in 2005, 2010 and again in 2017 when Nitish Kumar led the government. However, Sushil Modi has not been accommodated in the Nitish Kumar cabinet this time after the results of the 2020 assembly election were declared. Nitish Kumar explained that the decision not to include Sushil Modi in the cabinet was taken by the BJP and only the BJP could explain why.

BJP won 74 seats in the 2020 elections. This cannot be described as a major achievement of the party. Of the 122 seats, 11 seats were given to VIP party to contest as part of the seat-sharing agreement and the BJP contested on 111 seats of which it won 74 seats.

In the 2010 election, BJP had contested on 102 seats and won 91 of them. Top BJP leaders failed in highlighting the party's achievements during the campaign. The party leaders could not successfully convey to the people of Bihar how Narendra Modi's policies would be beneficial for the development of Bihar. For this lapse, Sushil Modi was primarily blamed. Sushil Modi's stand vis-à-vis the central government and BJP's state politics, it had become necessary to keep him away from the state government and party affairs.

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Even though top leaders of BJP are saying that Sushil Modi will be given an important position at the Centre, it is difficult to predict what responsibility he would be assigned at the Centre.

Prem Kumar's lust for power

Prem Kumar was elected to the state assembly eight times from Gaya. He has remained in controversy over his position in the party organisation. When in 2014 Nitish Kumar helped the government of Jitanram Manjhi, the BJP was in the opposition. It was Prem Kumar who had vociferously raked up the issue about who should be the leader of the opposition, forcing Nand Kishore Yadav to resign as the leader of the opposition.

After Nitish Kumar parted ways with the RJD in 2017 and formed the government with the support of BJP, Prem Kumar had opposed the party's decision to take up position in the cabinet. Now the BJP wants to assign bigger responsibility to Prem Kumar.

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BJP also wants to bring in new faces in the party organisation. That is why it is assigning new responsibilities to the veteran leaders of the party.

Nand Kishore Yadav as Assembly speaker

There is a talk of making Nand Kishore Yadav as the speaker of the state assembly. He has been leading the party from Patna city constituency. He is also credited with doing much groundwork in balancing the BJP's internal politics with Nitish Kumar's JDU. BJP wants him to be the assembly speaker because he is a leading figure from the Yadav community which both the Nitish government and the BJP would like to project.

New strategy of BJP

BJP has nominated one woman and a man as two deputy chief ministers. BJP, while projecting the centre’s development plank, also wants to buttress social engineering in Bihar. There was discontent among the people because of mishandling of coronavirus pandemic. Yet, the BJP performed well in the election. For this, the credit is being given to state party leadership.

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Mangal Pandey has been rewarded with a cabinet berth with the important portfolio of health and road building. This is enough to show his importance in the party.

BJP has already begun working on the Lok Sabha poll preparation strategy as also for the coming assembly elections in West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh.

BJP wants to convey the message that youth would be given bigger role and participation by effecting changes in Bihar. BJP appears to have been shaken by the way Tejashwi Yadav highlighted unemployment and other burning issues agitating the minds of the youth as his main election campaign. The youth are gradually becoming disillusioned with Modi as was evident from the support Tejashwi Yadav received for his campaign over unemployment.

Appealing to the youth would be the main concern for the BJP in the West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh assembly elections. If the BJP succeeds in appealing to the youth, it would pose a big challenge to other political parties. That is why the BJP is replacing old guards of the party with new and young faces in Bihar. The party is also giving importance to its youth cadre.

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For Uttar Pradesh, Bihar's senior BJP leader Radha Mohan Singh has been made in-charge of elections while Sanjiv Chourasia, the son of Sikkim governor Ganga Prasad, who has been elected to the Bihar assembly from Digha constituency, has been made co-convenor.

Youth leader Nitin Navin, who has been winning election from Bankipur seat of Bihar, has been made co-convenor for Chhattisgarh.

Thus BJP has started giving a new direction to its party organisation and orientation from Bihar.