The BJP is likely to accelerate its election preparations in Bihar this month. Two days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Gulabbag Shishabari on 15 September to inaugurate Purnia airport and possibly the Patna Metro Rail, Union Home Minister Amit Shah will visit Patna on 18 September.
Shah will meet BJP leaders and interact with hundreds of Hindu saints and seers. He will likely return to Bihar on 27 September before the Election Commission announces the assembly poll schedule.
Shah is likely to meet Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and other NDA leaders to finalise the seat-sharing arrangement for the October-November Bihar Assembly polls. He will also hold separate meetings with party organisations.
The BJP has divided Bihar into five zones, and Shah will meet leaders from two of them that day to discuss electoral strategy. The election is being seen as a crucial test for the BJP ahead of the West Bengal polls next year.
Focus on Religious Outreach
According to sources, Bihar has 45,000 mutts and temples.
“We have invited them all, and 8,000 to 10,000 priests, seers and saints are likely to attend the meeting with Shah at Bapu Sabhagar in Patna,” sources said.
Ahead of the PM and Shah’s visits, NDA leaders from Bihar displayed unity during the vice-presidential election in Delhi on Tuesday.
HAM(S) patron and Union Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, Rashtriya Lok Morcha chief and Rajya Sabha member Upendra Kushwaha, and LJP(RV) MP Arun Bharti declared there was no problem in NDA seat sharing.
Bharti, who had recently said his party, led by Union Minister Chirag Paswan, would prefer to contest between 137 seats as in 2020 and 43 seats as in 2015, made a U-turn. He clarified that the earlier remarks reflected his personal views and not the party’s position.
NDA Leaders Reaffirm Unity
In Patna, senior JD(U) leader and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary said the NDA partners enjoyed ‘perfect mutual understanding’.
Kushwaha added that NDA unity would be ‘more visible in Bihar polls than in the election for the VP post’.
Shah had earlier chaired a meeting of the Bihar BJP core committee in Delhi on 3 September to review candidate selection, the manifesto and the election campaign.
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