BJP workers told to scale up Covid relief, efforts on flood

nNEWDELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party asked its functionaries in poll-bound Bihar to redouble efforts to offer relief to Covid-19 and flood-hit people as the party has begun preparations for the assembly elections in the country’s third most populous state, people aware of the matter said.

The elections are crucial for the BJP, which is in alliance with the Janata Dal United in Bihar, since it lost power in Maharashtra and Jharkhand last year.

They are due later this year as the state needs to have a new assembly in place before November 26.

The elections in the flood-hit state would be the first since the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted lives and triggered an exodus of migrant workers to their home states including Bihar.

The BJP has also carried out a survey among the migrant workforce forced to return to the state after the lockdown imposed to check the pandemic left them jobless. The survey assessed the response to the aid offered by the state government.

“Between July 1 and 10, a survey was conducted across districts to find out the response of the workers and there were no complaints,” said a person aware of the details.

The BJP lost the last assembly elections in the state when JDU formed the government with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Congress. JDU returned to Bjp-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA)’S fold in Bihar in 2017.

The BJP suffered electoral setbacks after retaining power at the Centre with a bigger majority in 2019. It was unable to form the government in Maharashtra despite emerging as the single largest party following disagreements with its oldest ally, Shiv Sena, over power-sharing. In Haryana too, it could form the government only after Jannayak Janata Party’s support.

The BJP was voted out of power in Jharkhand in December 2019.

At a recent meeting between state BJP and national leadership, the issue of reaching out to people with aid was underlined, said the people.

Leaders of both the BJP and JDU maintain their response to the pandemic has been adequate even as it has had a severe impact on the economy and jobs. They insist it will not have any adverse impact on the electoral outcome.

But the BJP is looking at ways to mitigate public anger. In recent weeks, there has been a spurt in the number of Covid cases in the state. On Sunday, the count stood at 234 deaths and 36,604 active cases. Floods have also hit tens of thousands of people.

“Since the outbreak of the pandemic, we were distributing food parcels and other essentials but with the flooding now in several areas of the state, we will scale up our efforts,” said a senior functionary, requesting anonymity.