The ruling NDA in Bihar on Monday (November 25, 2024) announced that it will be launching an over a month-long drive to ensure better coordination, at the grassroots level, among coalition partners in the run-up to assembly elections due next year.
The announcement came at a press conference held inside the JD(U) office at Patna by state BJP chief and minister Dilip Jaiswal, and was attended by others.
Speaking on the occasion, state JD(U) President Umesh Singh Kushwaha said, “The drive will begin from Bagaha on January 15 and cover the entire state by February 25. State presidents of all five NDA partners will be in districts to interact with workers of all NDA partners, down to the Panchayat level”.
Kushwaha disclosed that the program was drawn out after a recent NDA meeting held at the residence of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who “gave us the target of more than 225 seats of the 243-strong assembly. Our leader wants the NDA to better its record of the year 2010 when the JD(U)-BJP combine had bagged 206 seats”.
Notably, the NDA in Bihar now also includes Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) of Union minister Chirag Paswan, in addition to Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha and Rajya Sabha MP Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Morcha.
State presidents of all these parties were present at the press conference.
In his address, Mr. Jaiswal said, “The recent by-polls to four assembly constituencies have demonstrated the potency of the coalition which wrested three seats from the opposition Mahagathbandhan.”
“We are committed to fighting the 2025 assembly polls as a team and achieve the 225-plus target,” said Mr. Jaiswal.
He, however, parried queries on Pashupati Kumar Paras, former Union minister and Chirag’s estranged uncle, whose disgruntlement over the rising stock of the nephew has triggered speculations of exit from the NDA.
“Only our national leadership in Delhi is competent to make a statement on the issue”, added Mr. Jaiswal.
Published - November 25, 2024 05:28 pm IST
