The BJP will win all 40 Lok Sabha seats from Bihar next year, and will also form the government alone in the State’s Assembly election in 2025, party president J.P. Nadda said on Thursday. Though he did not name Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who snapped ties with the BJP last year, Mr. Nadda also sent a clear message by saying that the BJP has decided not to allow anyone else to sit on its shoulders.
He was speaking at an event to commemorate the centenary of Kailashpati Mishra, one of the founding members of the party and a towering BJP leader from Bihar.
“The best tribute to Kailashpati Mishra will be when the BJP wins all 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar and also forms its own government in 2025. Humne dusro ko kandhe par baithna chor diya hai, ab khud ke khande majboot kar ke, apni sarkar banayenge Bihar mein. (We have left others to sit on our shoulders, now by strengthening our own shoulders, we will form our own government in Bihar),” Mr. Nadda told the 5,000 party workers gathered at Bapu Sabhagar in Patna.
Compromise and corruption
The BJP’s top leaders from Bihar, including Union Ministers, were present on the dais at the event. Among those present were Giriraj Singh, Nityanand Rai, Radha Mohan Singh, Sushil Kumar Modi, Ravi Shankar Prasad, and Ashwini Choubey.
“The leadership of the State has compromised with corruption and now the time has come to say goodbye to the politics of appeasement. Lalu [Yadav] and Nitish [Kumar] started politics at the time of JP [Jayaprakash Narayan], and JP was against Indira Gandhi. Lalu named his daughter Misa because he was jailed under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA), and now he is welcoming Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. He too compromised for the sake of power,” Mr. Nadda claimed.
Dynasty politics
He levelled serious allegations against the Opposition INDIA bloc, saying that its only motives were dynasty politics and corruption. Claiming that only Prime Minister Narendra Modi could bring inclusive growth in the country, Mr. Nadda accused several INDIA bloc’s leaders of joining hands only for the sake of their own family dynasties.
“These leaders want to take their families ahead, not the country. In Jammu and Kashmir, Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah; in Uttar Pradesh, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav; in West Bengal, TMC is not working for the State but for [Mamata Banerjee’s] nephew Abhishek Banerjee. In Bihar, RJD’s Lalu Prasad is working for his son Tejashwi Yadav; and in Congress, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka. The people of this country will not accept dynasty politics and they will all be finished,” Mr. Nadda added.
OBC rights
The BJP president did not mention Bihar’s caste-based survey findings which have triggered a political debate at the national level. Its report showed that extremely backward classes (EBCs) make up the largest chunk of the Bihar population, with a 36.01%. share.
However, he did emphasise the BJP’s support for the rights of other backward classes (OBCs), who make up the second biggest population bloc in Bihar, with a 27.12% share.
“BJP always supported backward classes and OBCs, and fought for their rights. The BJP government gave constitutional rights to OBCs, but the leaders of Bihar always promoted their family members in the name of social justice. The BJP government has 27 OBC Ministers, 85 OBC MPs, 27% of MLAs are from OBCs, and 40% of MLCs are from OBCs. We have given maximum benefit to OBCs,” Mr. Nadda said, adding, “As Modi ji said, poverty is the biggest caste and we are all trying to empower everyone.”
BJP State president Samrat Choudhary termed the caste survey’s findings as a “half-baked report”.
