Shah sets sights on Bihar polls
Buoyed by the unprecedented victory in the Assembly elections held in some states in north India, BJP president Amit Shah has set a target to capture power in Bihar which goes to polls later this year and end the Jungle Raj- 2 of Bihar CM Nitish Kumar.
Briefing reporters after the inauguration of the national executive committee meeting here, Union forests, environment and ecology minister Prakash Javadekar quoted Mr Shah as saying that people had voted for the BJP-Janata Dal ( United) coalition that faced the elections unitedly and not for the JD( U) alone.
However, the JD( U) betrayed the saffron party and people were angry and upset over this. Jungle Raj had returned to Bihar now and the BJP was confident of winning the Assembly elections comfortably to form the government on its own, he said.
Mr Javadekar also said Mr Shah was happy with the tremendous response to the party’s ongoing membership drive, especially in states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Assam and north- eastern states where the saffron party hardly had any presence. For instance, the number of members in Kerala had crossed 19 lakh as against 14 lakh. There has been a 10- fold increase in membership in some states.
Mr Shah has decided to launch two new programmes — Maha Sampark Abhiyan ( mass contact programme) and training of new members. As part of the mass contact programme, party workers will visit houses of every new member and make them workers. This would also help the party have a data bank of new members.
“Around 15 lakh new members will be trained in political activism to make them party workers. Of the total 1,600 registered political parties in the country, the BJP is a truly democratic party where there is internal democracy. In this party, an ordinary worker can become prime minister or national president on the basis of sheer hard work and dedication,” he said.