Patna

BJP president Amit Shah and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh would attend a party workers convention tomorrow to sound the bugle for Assembly elections to be held later this year.

“Our leaders Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh will launch the campaign for Bihar Assembly polls at the mega workers’ convention tomorrow. At least three workers from each of the around 62,000 booths in the state will participate in it,” state BJP president Mangal Pandey told reporters today.

“They will apprise the workers of the steps taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government for the development of Bihar. They will take the message to each and every house in villages. They will ask voters to take a vow to remove Jungle raj-2 from the state,” Pandey said.

Senior BJP leader and former Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi said as the event was being organised on the occasion of 125th birth anniversary of dalit icon B R Ambedkar, the workers will take a pledge to avenge the ‘insult’ to former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, a mahadalit, allegedly by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and RJD President Lalu Prasad.

Reacting to Kumar’s remark that BJP has nothing to do with Ambedkar, Sushil said “A large number of people are seen at Manjhi’s public rally. I don’t know whether BJP will get their votes in the polls, but they will certainly teach Kumar a lesson as to who is a follower of Ambedkar.”

On the process of merger of six Janata Parivar parties — JD(U), RJD, SP, INLD, JD(S) and SJP, he said it was not aimed at developing Bihar, but to check BJP in the state.

“These kind of experiments have happened earlier also in 1977 and 1989. The Janata Party was formed and broken within one and one-and-a-half years,” he added.

“Such negative politics will not work anymore. Bihar will not tolerate a government which functions by pushing, as Lalu had proudly said. Bihar now wants a government with full majority, which will usher development,” Sushil Kumar Modi added.

He alleged Bihar suffered immensely after Kumar broke his party’s alliance with BJP.

“The growth rate is now half of what it used to be.Hospitals have no medicine. Revenue collections grew by a paltry 3.3 per cent in comparison to 20 per cent in previous years. The number of foreign tourists in the state has come down by 4 lakh. Bihar is going down in all sectors,” he added.

He also said around two lakh party workers who will congregate at the Gandhi Maidan for the event will be given four-page handbills that will enumerate central government’s gifts to Bihar in the Railway and Union Budget.

They will also highlight the benefits to the state due to the recommendations of the 14th Finance Commission and the Land Acquisition Bill.

Sushil Kumar Modi, who is also Leader of Opposition in Bihar Legislative Council, apologised to the people of Patna in advance if they face hardship in commuting as over 10,000 small and several big vehicles will enter the city from outside because of the convention.

He added that the participants of tomorrow’s events are being charged Rs 10 each so that they feel that they have contributed something to the party. Earlier Jansangh also used to charge money from participants.

Leader of Opposition in Bihar Legislative Assembly, Nand Kishore Yadav said the Prime Minister gifted a Madhubani painting to a mayor during his visit to Germany.

“This shows how much respect and goodwill he has towards Bihar,” he added.

– PTI