Both the parties are trying to increase their social base by holding programmes at the booth level. Senior leaders claim interactions with voters are for NDA’s benefit in Bihar.
Patna: With an eye on elections, the ruling JD (U) and the BJP have started strengthening their organisational structure, including appointment of booth-level agents, for the Lok Sabha and Assembly constituencies of Bihar. The two are also ramping up preparations for possible “simultaneous” LS and Assembly polls.
The voter outreach by the NDA partners is also timed to counter the perceived growing popularity of the RJD in the state after imprisonment of Lalu Prasad Yadav and action by Central investigating agencies against him and his family in corruption cases.
The JD(U) realigned with the BJP while coming back to the NDA fold in July last year after the collapse of the grand secular alliance.
Sources claim that chief minister Nitish Kumar has given his consent to party workers to get into the election mode and start preparations for Lok Sabha polls which are due in 2019.
JD(U) top leaders have also been hinting that the party is ready to face early Assembly elections “even if it is held with Lok Sabha polls”.
According to JD (U) insiders, the party has been planning to build a roadmap for reaching out to its workers in the rural areas. When chief minister Nitish Kumar recently embarked upon on his statewide review tour, observers termed it as an “image building exercise”.
“My purpose is not to run the government from the state capital but to assess ground realities and development schemes so that basic amenities like roads, clean water and power reaches every village,” Mr Kumar said.
Political analysts claim that the mass contact programmes launched by the chief minister CM will give JD (U) better chances to bargain for seats during elections in Bihar.
But its not just the JD U) which has been gearing up and preparing for early polls. Sources claimed that the BJP has also launched separate programmes to reach out its voters.
Observers say that Bihar is important for BJP because the NDA had won 31 out of 40 Lok Sabha seats in the 2014 general elections. The JD(U) was not part of the NDA during the 2014 Lok Sabha and 2015 Assembly elections.
With both the parties trying to increase their social base, senior leaders claim that meetings and interactions with voters will only benefit the NDA in Bihar.
According to senior JD(U) leader Niraj Kumar, “Holding programmes at the booth level will strengthen the alliance. We have been trying to inform people about the achievements of our government. Such exercise will only benefit the NDA in Bihar”.
JD(U) leader said that booth-level workers have also been asked to create awareness about the failures of all previous governments which had ignored the development of the state.
A similar programme has also been launched by the BJP. Party’s general secretary and in-charge of Bihar affairs Bhupinder Yadav recently urged functionaries to bring in new faces and spread awareness about the party’s developmental policies.
BJP leaders claimed that the party is also planning to set up committees at the panchayat level to woo voters.
Party insiders said that the strategy will be to win over a maximum of rural voters who are presently under the hold of either the RJD or the Congress.
According to BJP spokesperson Prem Ranjan Patel, “Separate programmes have been launched in order to reach out to a maximum number of voters and inform them about the policies of the government. Party programmes which have been launched separately will only benefit the NDA during elections,” he said.
The worst fear within the NDA camp is the growing popularity of the RJD in the state after Lalu Yadav landed in jail in the fodder scam.
According to observers, the RJD is also trying to gain sympathy by alleging political vendetta against the former chief minister.
