BJP chief to chair crucial meeting with Bihar MPs, senior netas to finalise poll strategy

As the poll season arrives in Bihar, BJP president JP Nadda is all set to chair a meeting of BJP MPs and senior party leaders on Saturday to finalise its poll strategy. According to sources, all the BJP MPs from Bihar including union ministers Ravishankar Prasad, Giriraj Singh, RK Singh, Nityanand Rai and Ashwini Choubey are likely to attend the meeting at the party office to discuss preparations for Bihar elections. BJP has already declared that CM Nitish Kumar will be the NDA face for the elections, however, all eyes are on the seat-sharing deal between the parties. 

Sources said that BJP chief wants to know the ground reality ahead of the election and will discuss the seat-sharing to know the views of the MPs for the upcoming polls. The meeting with MPs is considered to be very important as their feedback will also be used in seat-sharing for National Democratic Alliance (NDA). 

Moreover, sources have also said that Nadda will start his Bihar tour if the lockdown is lifted in the state, alongside BJP's National General Secretary Bhupender Yadav who was appointed as party's state in-charge in December last year.

"BJP, JDU, and LJP will fight elections together and win. We have to add value not only to BJP but to our alliance partners also," Nadda had said addressing Bihar BJP State Karyasamiti via video conferencing. Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is likely to lead the Bihar election campaign. "BJP usually sends its leaders to various states to help the party in elections and accordingly I will be going to Bihar, whatever party instructs I will do it," Fadnavis had said.

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Rahul Gandhi plans virtual rallies

Amid internal chaos in Congress, Rahul Gandhi is set to campaign in the upcoming assembly polls in Bihar, said sources on Saturday. Rahul Gandhi's eyes at Congress fortune in Bihar as well as aims to motivate party workers ahead of the campaign season, sources added. Congress' election in-charge and national secretary Ajay Kapoor said that the former Congress chief will conduct 100 virtual rallies throughout the state from September 1 to 21.

Bihar assembly elections 

Amid rising COVID-19 cases, Bihar is all set to go to polls for a 243-member assembly seat this year. While BJP and JDU have said that they will contest the polls with CM Nitish Kumar as the leader, the Mahagathbandhan consisting of RJD, Congress, HAM, and others are still discussing the name of former CM Lalu Yadav's son Tejashwi Yadav. 

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While Kumar faces strong anti-incumbency, RJD - Bihar's main opposition has lost the luster it once had due to the absence of it's chief Lalu Prasad Yadav.  Meanwhile, former JDU vice president Prashant Kishor has also claimed that he is working at 'ground level' for the development of Bihar.  In a twist of sorts, London-based Pushpam Priya Choudhary, the daughter of JDU leader Binod Choudhary, on March 8 declared herself as the Chief Ministerial candidate.

In the 2015 assembly polls, CM Nitish Kumar's JDU, then a part of the Mahagathbandhan won 71 seats, Lalu Prasad Yadav's RJD won 80 seats, and Congress won 27 seats. The BJP which fought the elections alone after Kumar in 2013 broke the 17-year-old alliance won a mere 53 seats out of 157 contested. However, the saffron party came back to power when Kumar ditched the Mahagathbandhan and once again stitched an alliance with the BJP.

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