Bihar:BJP counts on Yogi to exorcise ghost of Bihar assembly election loss
When Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath addresses a public gathering at the north Bihar district headquarters town of Darbhanga, on Thursday, he’ll do more than just showcase the achievements of the Narendra Modi government, over the past three years.
The saffron-clad monk-politician will make that appearance as much for being an embodiment of the BJP’s greatest electoral success since its inception in India’s politically most significant state – its 312 seats out of total 403 seats victory, in the assembly election in UP in March.
As such, Yogi is being counted upon to apply the ‘feel good factor’ arising out of the spectacular UP victory, to lift the BJP in Bihar, still recovering from its stunning defeat at the hands of the RJD-JD (U)-Congress ‘grand alliance’, in the November 2015 assembly poll.
Bihar BJP president Nityanand Rai tacitly acknowledged this on the eve of Yogi’s trip. “With his own very successful 100 days in office as CM of UP, Yogiji will add the whiff of the party’s big victory in UP to the achievements of the Modi government”, Rai told HT on Wednesday.
He also reiterated that the BJP had cancelled a proposed public meeting of Yogi, in the state capital, on June 15, because of party workers’ preoccupation with the mayor’s election in Patna on June 19.
“However, the cancellation was seen as a sign of a lack of confidence in the party’s ability to organize a grand public show that is commensurate with the huge public standing that Yogi enjoys at present”, said a senior BJP leader, in private.
The party that Rai heads in Bihar surely needs the ‘Yogi booster’, considering it does not have to its credit even a single state-wide agitation since the November 2015 poll, in which it won just 53 seats in the 243-member Bihar assembly, to 178 seats secured by the ‘grand alliance’.
Rather, the BJP’s most effective role as the principal opposition party in Bihar may be ascribed to the doings of just one of its leaders – former deputy CM Sushil Modi, who, in this endeavour, appeared to receive little support from other leaders of the party.
Modi’s series of revelations on the ‘unexplained’ properties acquired by members of RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s immediate family, appeared not only to put him in a spot, but, with the JD (U) not coming out in support of Prasad, has also driven a wedge within the ruling grand alliance (GA).
GA constituents – the RJD and JD (U), have, in recent months, been taking divergent positions on a variety of issues, including demonetization and presidential poll. To add to the alliance worries is possible impact on Bihar of the emerging caste configurations in UP.
For example, say BJP leaders, the Kushwaha, a major OBC caste, which is believed to have played a big role in the grand alli-
The government will reach out to the opposition this week to test the waters for a consensus on its candidate for the July 17 presidential election.
Union ministers Rajnath Singh and M Venkaiah Naidu are expected to meet Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Friday and hold a separate meeting with Sitaram Yechury later.
Both are part of a three-member panel, also comprising finance minister, Arun Jaitley, that the BJP has formed to hold dialogue with the opposition and within the NDA over presidential election. On Wednesday, Naidu also spoke to BSP’s Satish Chandra Mishra and NCP’s Praful Patel, but both remain non committal on support.
Rajnath and Naidu also met earlier in the day to discuss the strategy and finalise the list of parties they need to reach out to.
Separately, BJP chief Amit Shah also formed another committee comprising Ananth Kumar, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi — both Union ministers — and party general secretary Bhupendra Yadav to work with states on a smooth sail for the ruling side’s candidate.
Meanwhile, a panel of ten Opposition leaders, assigned to pick a candidate, held its first meeting on Wednesday but opted to wait as government managers have reached out to the parties.
A 42-year-old debt-ridden farmer consumed pesticide and died in Madhya Pradesh’s Balaghat on Wednesday, the sixth farm suicide in a week in a region rocked by violent protests for better crop prices and a loan waiver.
Officials said Ramesh Bisen had an outstanding loan of ₹25,000 and died in his field on a day chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan met families of the five farmers gunned down in police firing in Mandsaur on June 6 and Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia went on a ‘satyagrah’ for 72 hours.
The deaths sparked a wave of protests across the state’s Malwa belt, and adjoining Rajasthan and Maharashtra, as angry farmers torched vehicles and ransacked property.
The farmers, many of whom have dumped tonnes of produce on the roads and drained litres of milk, say they have been left in the lurch by the state government as rates have crashed due to a bumper crop and a cash crunch post demonetisation.
