Patna: Ahead of Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP President JP Nadda's visit to Patna, the state capital has turned saffron as posters, banners and flags have flooded the city. The two-day BJP national executive meeting of its seven frontal organizations is taking place starting July 30. The BJP delegates are already on a constituency tour of 200 assembly seats prior to the meeting. Meanwhile, the mega event is giving sleepless nights to Nitish Kumar's JDU (Janata Dal-United).
During the weekend program, Amit Shah and Nadda will be interacting with over 800 leaders from all over the country. The meeting is seen as preparation for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and 2025 assembly polls in the state. The JDU leaders, on the other hand, are baffled by the move of the BJP, which is also the alliance partner of the NDA government in Bihar.
Many within JDU have questioned the timing of the event, noting that such meetings usually take place in a state when there are elections in store in the near future. Noting no such crucial events headed Bihar's way for the time being, they expressed apprehensions about whether their NDA ally was aiming to contest a greater number of seats.
"We would have been happy if the BJP leaders would have focused on the 121 seats from which they had contested assembly elections last time. Why is the BJP focusing on 200 seats? Are they planning to contest more seats than JDU in the 2025 assembly poll?" a senior JDU leader inquired on the condition of anonymity.
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The sentiments surface, notably, after a similar statement by JDU parliamentary board chairman Upendra Kushwaha, in which he noted the Nitish Kumar-led party was in power with BJP, but could not assure what would the situation be come elections in 2024 and 2025. Bihar BJP co-in-charge Harish Dwivedi, who is already in Patna, when contacted said that if necessary, the party will not hesitate to hold "Prawas Programme" in all 243 assembly constituencies in days to come.
Despite Chief Minister Nitish Kumar belonging to Janata Dal-United, the tally post-2020 elections, tilted in favor of the BJP (74 seats), while JDU scored 43 seats. The rift between two constituents has become clearer in recent months, with disputes emerging regarding issues such as caste census, population control policy, Agnipath recruitment scheme as well as law and order issues in the state.
To top it off, it has been learned that both Shah and Nadda are unlikely to meet Kumar after testing COVID 19 positive. Explaining the motive behind the BJP's mega event, Patna-based political expert Dr. Sanjay Kumar opined that BJP has made up its mind to go in the general election and assembly election with or without JDU.
"BJP has decided and made up their mind to go to the elections, slated to be held 2024 and 2025, with or without JDU. If the talks fail on seat sharing with JDU, the saffron party will contest on all 243 seats and the same goes for Lok Sabha polls by contesting election on all 40 seats.
It is a clear message to the JDU that they are ready to go solo. It is up to JDU now, how they are taking this event and they too must be having a plan as the team is led by none other than Nitish Kumar, who is one of the most seasoned politicians of Indian politics,", Kumar said.
