Union Home Minister Amit Shah will be visiting Bihar, more specifically the Muslim-dominated Seemanchal area of the State, his first such visit after the Janata Dal (U) parted ways with the BJP to ally with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) to form government.
Senior sources in the BJP have confirmed that Mr. Shah will visit Bihar on September 23-24 and will address two rallies, one in Purnea and another in Kishanganj, both in the Seemanchal area.
"Amit Shahji will be in Patna first for a meeting of the core group of the BJP. There will be a review of the programme of senior leaders of the party who are to visit 200 Assembly segments in the State. After that there will be two public rallies, one in Purnea and another in Kishanganj," said the source.
Also Read | Nitish Kumar government wins floor test in Bihar Assembly
These are areas where the Muslim population ranges between 35% and 70%. The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) did well there in the 2019 election, largely on the back of communal polarisation. The NDA had won three out of the four seats in the area. Even the seat won by the JD(U) was by a BJP member who fought on JD(U) ticket as the two parties were in alliance.
"To go to Seemanchal is also saankaitik (symbolic)," added the source alluding to the fact that in the Mahagatbandhan, the banding together of the JD(U), the RJD and others presented a formidable caste arithmetic which had to be countered by Hindutva consolidation across caste lines.
This plan comes as Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has signalled that he is ready to stake claim to the national leadership of the Opposition parties.
His party put up posters in Patna stating the obvious: " Pradesh main dikha, desh main dikhega" (After being visible in the State, it will be visible nationally" with an accompanying photograph of Mr. Kumar.
The posters came up, incidentally, during the visit of Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, who is himself trying to bring Opposition parties together on one forum.
While the Hindutva versus Backward Classes consolidation did not work well as a strategy for the BJP in the 2015 Assembly election, where it had faced the Mahagatbandhan for the first time, Mr. Shah seems to be amenable to give it another try.
