Eye on polls, BJP all set to woo Bihar with a fat package

PM to lead charge with a rally on July 25; upcoming assembly polls party’s first electoral test after Delhi rout

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will kick-start the NDA’s election campaign in Bihar at a public rally later this month where he could make an announcement related to a ‘package’ for the state that has been discussed within the central government for quite some time. The move is being seen as aimed to blunt JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar’s campaign to get a ‘special status’ for the state.

“The Prime Minister may announce some Bihar-specific projects at the event,” a BJP leader said, suggesting it would be more than just a political rally. All NDA allies, including former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, are expected to attend the event at Muzaffarpur on July 25.

Bihar is bracing for a direct contest between the BJP-led NDA and the JD(U)-RJD-Congress alliance during polls for the 243-member state assembly due in September-October.

In alliance, the BJP and the JD(U) swept the 2010 assembly election, with the former bagging 91 seats and the latter 115. They fought the 2014 Lok Sabha election separately, where the NDA won 31 of 40 seats in the state while the JD(U) got just two.

After that performance, the BJP is banking on its development agenda and Modi’s personal charisma to pull off a victory in Bihar – the first electoral test of the country’s ruling party after its rout in the Delhi assembly election earlier this year.

During his visit to the state, the PM will also inaugurate a railway bridge project over the Ganga river that has been demanded for years. Infrastructure projects, centrally sponsored schemes and some other sops are likely to be bundled into one to be offered as a package amounting to over Rs 1 lakh crore.

“The PM may speak about this at the rally in Muzaffarpur,” another BJP leader said.

NDA partners, BJP sources said, will announce a detailed campaign programme. “Many suggestions (about a joint campaign) have come. We are working on them,” a BJP general secretary said.

The party, sources said, was considering projecting joint leadership through a simultaneous campaign by prominent leaders of its state unit.