SHADOW BOXING
Just before the two-day national executive meeting of all seven wings of the BJP ended in Patna last week, party workers were sent to spend 48 hours in Bihar’s 200 assembly constituencies. Perhaps the party wants to reduce its dependency on ally Janata Dal (United), which won only 43 of Bihar’s 243 seats in 2020. In public, though, the BJP, or its national general secretary Arun Singh, spout coalition dharma and say they’ll contest the together. JD(U) is taking no chances—national president Lalan Singh was heard talking about fortifying the party in all 243 seats.