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Journalism of Courage
Even as the BJP has claimed that no other political party can match its organisational strength and growth, it has made it clear that it would contest the 2024 Lok Sabha and 2025 Assembly elections in Bihar with its allies “under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi”.
The message came out of a two-day (July 30-31) joint meeting of all seven wings of the BJP – of farmers, women, youth, OBCs, EBCs, SCs and STs – the first such meeting anywhere in the country. The meeting, attended by over 700 delegates across the country, was addressed by BJP national president J P Nadda and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, among other top leaders of the party.
Speaking on Saturday, Nadda referred to the BJP as a “national party with regional aspirations” and that no other party was anywhere close to the BJP in terms of organisational strength and growth.
The same day, JD(U) national president Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh said that the “BJP could prepare for 243 seats rather than 200 seats and the JD(U) could also do the same as all parties are free to strengthen their base”. Of the 243 seats in the Bihar Assembly, the BJP contested 110 seats and won 74 in the 2020 election while the JD(U) contested 115 and won 43. Smaller allies HAM(S) and VIP fought on the other seats.
Just as the comments by Nadda and Lalan Singh triggered talk of whether the uneasy alliance partners were preparing to go their own ways, came a statement from BJP national general secretary Arun Singh that served to put a lid on the speculation.
Speaking to the media on Sunday, Singh, quoting Amit Shah’s statement at the internal meeting, said the BJP would contest the 2024 Lok Sabha and 2025 Assembly polls with its allies, JD(U), Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) and National Lok Janshakti Party, under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi… We have to first ensure that we win the maximum number of seats in Bihar to make Narendra Modi PM again.” Of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar, the NDA, of which the Ram Vilas Paswan-led LJP was a part, had won 39 seats with the BJP winning all the 17 seats it contested and the JD(U) winning 16. Ally LJP won the remaining six seats.
Several MLAs who attended internal sessions of the two-day meet said the party did discuss the “indispensability of Nitish Kumar in the NDA alliance”. BJP also talked about “mutual trust and respect” between the two alliance partners.
A source also said the meeting took note of the fact that the BJP had failed to find a leader in the state to match Nitish’s stature. “While discussing Nitish, Amit Shah asked party leaders in the core committee meeting to raise their hands if they are in favour of continuing with Nitish’s leadership for the NDA. Almost all of them raised their hands.”
Nadda reportedly expressed his regret that the BJP had failed to give Bihar a tall leader over the last two decades.
A delegate who attended the meeting said, “The message was very clear — to keep expanding and energising the party but not do anything that disturbs the ‘winning’ BJP-JD(U) combination. All wings of the party were told to go up to the booth level.”
With both the coalition partners vying with each other for the floating EBC and Dalit votes, the BJP realises that it will have to work out its social engineering equation without disturbing the JD(U). For, the party knows that it can ill-afford an angry Nitish crossing over to the RJD-Congress camp, a possibility that might spoil the NDA’s chances in the 2024 and 2025 polls.
