With Prime Minister Narendra Modi having set the tone for it a day earlier, the core committee of the BJP for Bihar met in Delhi on Wednesday to discuss the broad contours of its campaign for the coming Assembly elections in the state.
Party sources said ‘maiya’ or mother aligning it with the party’s core messaging of women empowerment, clarifying Constitutional provisions around the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, the “dark days” of governance under the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the “overall corruption of the Congress”, alongside the projection of the NDA government’s development agenda would guide the alliance’s campaign.
Chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah at his residence, the meeting was attended by BJP president and Union Health Minister J P Nadda, Bihar in-charge Vinod Tawde, co-incharge Deepak Prakash and senior state leaders, including Deputy CMs Vijay Sinha and Samrat Choudhary.
“This was a preliminary meeting where the focus was on the assessment of the ground especially after RJD-Congress’s Vote Adhikar Yatra, apart from creating a broad outline for the election campaign. We have chalked out poll-related programmes till November 20,” a senior leader, who was part of the meeting, said.
“From the issue related to the abuses showered on the Honourable Prime Minister’s mother to the condition of the women under RJD’s dark rule, there is likely to be a very significant focus on the honour and dignity of every ‘maiya’ on the soil of Janaki (Sita) Maiya; we will also hit the ground to dispel misinformation around the SIR through an outreach over the actual provisions of the Constitution,” the leader said.
According to a party source, an assessment of the ground situation around the traction received by the Rahul Gandhi-led Vote Adhikar Yatra was among the focus points of the meeting. In addition to the SIR, the BJP outreach would also focus on “the corruption of the Lalu (Prasad) era”, along with the narrative of “corruption which uprooted the Congress from power”.
Sources said more meetings may take place in the coming days, including with NDA partners, most likely when alliance MPs will be in Delhi for an activity related to the September 9 Vice-Presidential election this weekend.
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BJP Bihar president Dilip Jaiswal said joint NDA camps in each of the state’s 243 Assembly segments was discussed in the meeting, along with the “confusing narrative” being spread by the Opposition.
“Appreciating the NDA karyakarta sammelan, the national leadership directed to convene similar events at the Assembly level by September 25 in consultation with all the leaders concerned,” Jaiswal said, clarifying that the call on seat-sharing between NDA allies would be taken by the national leadership of the alliance. “It has also been decided to form a chunav abhiyan samiti comprising senior leaders to set the ball rolling… a Chunav Samiti will assess potential candidates and send the names to the national leadership,” he said.
