New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has decided to go to the people in Bihar in order to expose what it calls the Janata Dal (United)’s “lie factory” — a reference to the claim that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had inducted then JD(U) leader R.C.P. Singh into the Union cabinet without the consent of party supremo and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar.
This is one of the issues JD(U) leaders have cited to justify the party’s decision to break its alliance with the BJP and join hands with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) earlier this month.
The matter came up at a core committee meeting of the Bihar BJP Tuesday. “During the meeting, (Union home minister) Amit Shah ji pointed out that Nitish Kumar is simply lying about the R.C.P. Singh matter,” one of the leaders who attended the meeting told ThePrint.
“Kumar had approved Singh’s name as the JD(U)’s representative in the Modi government, and the BJP needs to make the people aware of this lie factory,” the leader said.
The BJP’s Bihar unit is now planning to hold “pol-khol” (reveal the truth) rallies in the state, in which it will talk about how the CM has “not only betrayed the BJP but the people of Bihar (as well), and how he has been lying about the whole affair”.
“These rallies will start at the district level and will focus on one lie at a time. At the same time, the BJP will keep the pressure up on the internal contradictions that exist in this JD(U)-RJD alliance, and how it will take the state back to the ‘jungle raj’ era,” added the leader.
Former Union minister R.C.P. Singh resigned from the JD(U) earlier this month after the party sought his response on graft allegations against him. He was at the centre of the crisis that unfolded in the BJP-JD(U) alliance in Bihar.
On 7 August, JD(U) national president Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh had said at a press meet in Patna that “there was a move to create an RCP model in the manner a Chirag model was created in the 2020 assembly polls” to hurt the JD(U).
He was referring to allegations that Lok Janshakti Party chief Chirag Paswan — a member of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) alongside the BJP and the JD(U) — had conspired with the BJP to dent the JD(U)’s seat share in 2020 by contesting in seats where JD(U) candidates were in the fray.
Also read: Decline in popularity main reason why Nitish Kumar snapped ties with BJP, says Sushil Modi
BJP’s plan for Bihar
The BJP, which stands politically isolated after the JD(U) entered into an alliance with the RJD, Congress and Left parties (Mahagathbandhan), has now donned the role of Bihar’s new opposition. It’s planning to be more “aggressive” and keep up the pressure on the “unholy” alliance the JD(U) has made, party sources said.
Rural connect, pravas (visits) by BJP leaders and ministers, boosting the cadre’s morale and contesting elections on its own — this is the mantra the party is now looking to follow in Bihar.
Sources said the state unit has been asked to focus on strengthening booth committees and panna pramukhs — workers put in charge of engaging with voters on a particular page of the electoral roll — to ensure the party is visible in every nook and cranny of the state.
“Amit Shah ji emphasised (at the meeting) that we need to strengthen the party at the booth level and reach out to the villages. There has to be a special focus on constituencies held by the JD(U), as the BJP has so far not given them priority,” said the leader quoted earlier.
With the tenure of Bihar BJP president Sanjay Jaiswal coming to an end, a section in the party is also of the view that the BJP should focus on the ‘upper’ castes and at the same time find a “credible” face to challenge Nitish. “Alliances with smaller parties are also on the cards, but that will be a focus area ahead of the assembly election,” added the leader. The state’s next assembly election is due in 2025.
According to sources, the BJP has decided to focus on rural areas and the Centre’s free ration scheme.
A second BJP leader said: “For the past several months, the party cadre have been demotivated as they were unable to get work done and had to toe the line on the insistence of the central leadership. The break-up of the alliance proves that they were right, and so the party needs to reach out to them and ensure they are able to fight the new government more aggressively.”
Prior to the break-up with the JD(U), Shah had announced last month that the BJP would contest elections with its ally again.
A third senior BJP leader said: “The meeting went on for several hours, but the main message for everyone was that the BJP has to start preparing for elections on its own. How long can it use alliance partners as crutches? The party is not against alliances with smaller parties, but it should be ready on its own, too.”
Going solo not easy
During the core committee’s brainstorming session, strengthening the Bihar unit was a key point of discussion as the BJP has set an ambitious target of winning 35 of the state’s 40 Lok Sabha seats in the 2024 general election.
Currently, the BJP holds 17 seats, while the JD(U) has 16. With the BJP planning to go solo in the next election, achieving the target is likely to become more difficult, keeping in mind the caste arithmetic and the JD(U)-RJD alliance.
In the 2020 Bihar election, the BJP had emerged as the largest NDA ally with 74 seats to the JD(U)’s 43 (now 45). The RJD currently has 80 seats.
Speaking to ThePrint, a fourth senior BJP leader said the core committee members — who include former Bihar deputy CM Sushil Modi, Union ministers Giriraj Singh and Nityanand Rai, and former Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad among others — will be given charge of specific districts and will conduct pravas (visits).
“The idea is to reach out even to those communities that have so far been taken care of by our former ally JD(U), including the extremely backward classes (EBCs) and Mahadalits,” said the leader.
He added that “so many schemes were announced by the Narendra Modi government at the Centre — and Nitish Kumar’s government in Bihar took credit for them as we were in an alliance”.
“Our workers will now have to reach out to these communities and make them aware that it is the BJP government that has taken decisions for their welfare, and how such measures will continue in the future,” the leader explained.
Both these communities (EBCs and Mahadalits) were closely cultivated by the JD(U) through welfare schemes and reservations, and BJP leaders feel that the JD(U) has been reaping the benefits of this.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
Also read: Nitish keeps home & vigilance, but here’s why Bihar cabinet expansion shows CM’s weakening heft