J.P. Nadda and Devendra Fadnavis were given feedback about the anti-incumbency against party MLAs.
New Delhi: At least 25% of the sitting MLAs of BJP may not be repeated in the coming Bihar Assembly elections. During their recent visit to Bihar, party president J.P. Nadda and election in-charge for Bihar, Devendra Fadnavis, were given feedback about the anti-incumbency against these party MLAs. In the 2015 Assembly elections, 53 BJP candidates had won.
Nadda, who was on a two-day visit to Bihar, saw protests from party workers protesting in front of him, seeking changing sitting MLAs. BJP workers from Danapur, that adjoins Patna, even squatted outside the party office and tried to stop the movement of the visiting leaders’ vehicles, seeking replacement of the current MLA. Party workers from two other constituencies in Patna-Kumhrar and Bankipore, too, are vocally pressing for changing the sitting MLAs. Following the admission of ace national shooter Shreyashi Singh and her mother Putul Singh, widow of former Union minister Digvijay Singh, into the RJD, BJP workers from the Banka seat are also demanding change in the sitting MLA, who is a minister too.
Fadnavis visited Arrah on Saturday and held meetings with the local party workers. In Shahabad region, which has 20 seats, the workers, too, have asked for changing the sitting MLAs. Fadnavis is scheduled to visit Jahanabad and Gaya in the Magadh region on Sunday followed by visits to the Seemanchal areas of the state.
A former BJP MLA from the Shahabad region told The Sunday Guardian that he did not wish to contest the election this time as there was a strong current against the NDA in the region. A BJP minister from North Bihar region, speaking at the election committee meeting, told Nadda and Fadnavis that the association with the JDU was not acceptable to the common party workers who felt neglected in the state as only JDU workers were being preferred and “obliged” by the state government. Nadda visited Darbhanga and Muzaffarpur, too, and there also he was showered with similar sentiments from the party leaders and workers.
An OBC woman leader, while interacting with Nadda and Fadnavis, said that 33% of the prospective candidates of BJP should be women.
Nadda also met JDU national president, Nitish Kumar before returning to New Delhi to finalise the seat sharing arrangements. Deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi, BJP general secretary Bhupender Yadav and state party president Sanjay Jaiswal, too, were a part of the meeting.
The BJP is seeking seat sharing on the pattern of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections where the JDU and BJP both had contested on 20 seats each.
Apart from handling internal dissent, Nadda and Bhupender Yadav are also facing a vocal LJP which is insisting that it should be given 43 seats. Its leader Chirag Paswan has claimed that his party was preparing to contest on 143 seats, all of which are JDU constituencies.
Nitish Kumar, on the other hand, wants the BJP to allot share to LJP from its own share and has stated that the JUD will not sacrifice its seats for the LJP. In the 2015 elections, the JDU had contested on 101 seats.