BJP urges Nitish to address Patna rally

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The BJP leaders in Bihar, currently preparing to make a success of the party’s two-day national executive meet in Patna beginning on June 12, are trying hard to persuade chief minister and JD(U) stalwart Nitish Kumar to address a massive rally the saffron party has planned on the second day of its conclave.

Even though Mr Kumar is learnt to be unwilling to address the BJP’s “Bihar Swaviman Rally” at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan on June 13 for fear of alienating the JD(U)’s Muslim supportbase, he has agreed to host a gala dinner for some 300 BJP leaders coming from across the nation to participate in their national executive meet. Top BJP leaders like party patriarch L.K. Advani and Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, earlier anathema to Mr Kumar, would also be Bihar’s state guests.
With the BJP’s lofty ambitions for the forthcoming Bihar Assembly polls having brought its national executive meet to Patna after 16 years, the JD(U) evidently finds itself trapped between its duties towards its steady coalition partner and its avowed commitments to secularism, particularly because of its massive Muslim vote-bank. At 16.5 per cent of the state’s population, the Muslims number 1.36 crore and have played a crucial role in the JD(U)’s successive electoral victories.
Sources said senior Bihar BJP leaders are currently trying to ensure Mr Kumar’s participation in the rally by telling him and others in the JD(U) think-tank how it would send a stronger message to the people of Bihar and other states about a united NDA. “We will request the chief minister to address our rally. It would benefit both the BJP and the JD(U),” said Bihar PHED minister Ashwini Kumar Chaubey.
On Wednesday, Bihar BJP president C.P. Thakur told reporters that both the BJP conclave and rally would highlight the achievements of Bihar’s NDA government apart from discussing important national issues.
Like other BJP leaders who have already sensed Mr Kumar’s reluctance to address the BJP rally, Dr Thakur, however, reiterated that Mr Kumar’s absence must not be surprising because the rally was strictly an event of the BJP.