Describing its workers in Bihar as “NaMo-sevaks” (devotees of Narendra Modi), the BJP on Thursday unveiled an aggressive plan to target the state’s ruling JD(U) legislators’ constituencies for a series of public programmes to unite the people against chief minister Nitish Kumar’s “betrayal with the mandate”.
The BJP, now reconciled to its shocking transition from being a ruling ally of the JD(U) in Bihar for over seven years to being the main Opposition party, will organise the first phase of its workers’ meetings between June 29 and July 2 in all the 141 constituencies JD(U) had contested in the 2010 Assembly polls.
“BJP workers will tell the people in these meetings the real, power-hungry reasons behind chief minister and JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar’s betrayal with the mandate. BJP workers will ask the people to seek answers from the JD(U) legislators who sided with Kumar’s betrayal,” said BJP state president Mangal Pandey to reporters. BJP national general secretary Rajiv Pratap Rudy said the JD(U)’s decision to snap its 17-year-old alliance with the BJP was proof of Mr Kumar’s “rank opportunism and power-hungry politics” and a “deep insult for the many sacrifices” the national party had made in the past years to rid Bihar of the RJD’s “utter misrule” and terror”.
“While in 2000 the BJP had 68 MLAs and the JD(U) had just 35, the BJP showed its large heart and made a sacrifice to pick Nitish Kumar as the alliance leader in Bihar for the first time so as to end the RJD’s 15-year misrule. The BJP continued such sacrifices to project Kumar as leader of the NDA in Bihar only for the state’s sake. An ungrateful Kumar has now ruined his credibility by insulting the BJP’s sacrifices and the Bihar people’s mandates,” said Mr Rudy to reporters.
“BJP workers in Bihar are NaMo-sevaks and they wish Kumar’s early recovery from ‘NaMonia’ (fear of Narendra Modi). Kumar must see a good doctor,” added Rudy in an indirect reference to Kumar’s sharp attacks on the Gujarat BJP strongman in the Assembly on Wednesday.
Mr Rudy dismissed certain unkind comments made about Modi and BJP chief Rajnath Singh by party patriarch L.K. Advani’s close aide Sudheendra Kulkarni, saying: “He (Kulkarni) is a columnist and not even a primary member of the BJP.”