BJP national executive meet: Shah rejects rift with allies, asks party workers to aim at bigger tally in 2024 LS polls
PATNA: The two-day Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) national meet of all its seven morchas in Patna concluded on Sunday with a call to party cadres, drawn from across the country, to get down to brass tacks to make the party register a more emphatic victory in 2024 than 2019 when the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) had a near clean sweep bagging 39 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar.
After party president JP Nadda’s address to the leaders of the BJP cells, Union home minister Amit Shah, who was given a rousing reception at the airport on Sunday, made it clear that the NDA alliance in Bihar was here to stay till 2024-2025.
Later, briefing media persons, BJP organisational general secretary Arun Singh said that the message of Shah to the party cadres was to focus at the booth level and connect with all sections of the society by showcasing the “inclusive development model” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the various achievements of the NDA government despite stiff odds.
“It is the BJP government that could make it possible for an Adivasi woman to don the highest office of the country. There are many from the Dalit and backward communities and rural backgrounds, who are in the Narendra Modi Cabinet,” Shah said, urging party leaders to make the ‘Har Ghar Tiranga’ campaign a grand success.
Amid the speculations about the apparent trust deficit between the BJP and Janata Dal (United), which has come to light in more ways than one since the 2020 Assembly elections, the party organisational secretary said, quoting Shah, that not only in 2024 but also in 2025 the NDA would together contest the election. “NDA always respects the coalition dharma and its allies. There is no power tussle in the alliance,” he said.
Singh said that 378 BJP workers from various parts of the country, including from the non-Hindi belt, had spent three days in 200 constituencies of the state along with the local workers to get a first-hand feel of the ground realities and people’s aspirations through a string of programmes and activities.
Earlier in the day, after inaugurating 16 district party offices and laying the foundation stone of seven, Nadda took a dig at the dynastic politics and said in the times to come, only an ideology-driven party like the BJP would survive, while others ruled by families would perish. “In UP, BJP fought against dynastic politics. In Bihar, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) symbolises the same. Congress has also been reduced to Bhai-Behan ki party,” he added.
Nadda also released a book “Smriti Sakshya’, written by Sikkim Govenror Ganga Prasad Singh. The book has been published by Ganga Prasad Abhinandan Granth Saniti.
NDA brain game
Political analyst and former director of AN Sinha Institute of Social Studies DM Diwakar said that despite the growing trust deficit between the JD(U) and BJP, both sides were merely playing to the gallery for public consumption knowing the nature of Bihar‘s triangle politics, which does not allow anyone mainstream party complete sway.
“Nitish Kumar is upset after the 2020 Assembly poll debacle due to Chirag Paswan’s politics to cut him to size despite his own rout. He is, therefore, always on the lookout to show BJP that he has other options in the form of RJD, but does not want to go that far. RCP Singh factor is also there, as he was not long ago the key man in the JD(U) but suddenly fell out of favour. BJP, on the other hand, is trying to give the message that it can go alone, though it knows by experience how the state politics behave. It is an interesting phase of Bihar politics, though not so productive in terms of governance and development. Nitish Kumar’s illness also could not have come at a better time, as it puts a lid on any prospect of his meeting with any senior BJP leader,” he said.
