BJP prepares team of 98 leaders in Bihar to counter Rahul-Tejashwi's 'vote chori' yatra

New Delhi: A team of 98 leaders from across all NDA parties tasked with countering the Congress-RJD combine’s “vote chori” yatra in Bihar has been constituted. The team, divided in over a dozen teams, was formed after PM Narendra Modi’s rally in the state on August 22.

Sources in the BJP said that the 98 leaders have been divided in 14 teams, each headed by senior faces like Sanjay Jha, Samrat Chaudhary, Nityanad Rai, Sanjay Jaiswal etc. They will hold conferences, do door-to-door campaigns etc., to counter the Opposition charge.

Each of these 14 teams will have seven members each, and 7 of these teams will be headed by BJP leaders and 7 by JDU leaders. According to sources, the BJP’s top leadership has strategised the teams such that leaders of all NDA constituent parties will be included in these 14 teams, which will cover all the constituencies in the state.

The teams will be led by Sanjay Jha, the working president of the JD(U), union ministers Giriraj Singh, Jitan Ram Manjhi, Nityanand Rai, Satish Chandra Dubey and Ram Nath Thakur, among others. Apart from this, both Bihar deputy chief ministers Samrat Chaudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha will head individual teams. State presidents of all NDA parties and other leaders have also been included in these teams.

BJP leaders said that the NDA is going to take an aggressive stance against the leaders of the Opposition India bloc, especially the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Congress in view of the kind of aggression these parties showed to the treasury benches in Parliament. They are now working a strategy to attack the Opposition on the issue of corruption and misgovernance.

These leaders are holding joint meetings of all NDA workers at the assembly level to ensure better coordination just before the elections in Bihar. A leader heading one of these teams said that each team lead is now holding conferences with their seven leaders, after which these leaders have been directed to go to the regions entrusted to them. “Every three days we are holding workers’ conferences after which we take a break, and then we move on to a conference spread out across another three days,” the leader said.

As part of their duties, the leaders are preparing these workers to counter the Opposition workers. “Our policies, our work during these last few years and what is in the pipeline for our voters – this is what we intend to tell our workers,” the leader quoted above said.

Leaders will also hold a joint press conference to highlight the work and achievements of the NDA government at the Centre and in the state. The Aunta-Simaria Ganga Bridge, the Buxar Thermal Power Plant, and the Amrit Bharat Express train are some of the projects of development in Bihar that they will highlight. The Pradhan Mantri Udhan Bharat Rojgar Yojana under which the youth get Rs 15,000 will also be highlighted. In his recent rally, OM Modi announced development projects worth Rs 13,000 crore in Gaya.

The BJP has also made cultural and religious issues part of its outreach strategy. For instance, the plan to build a grand temple at the birthplace of Mata Janaki in Sitamarhi, which will be developed on the lines of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, will be a core election promise, said leaders.

The "vote chori" yatra by Rahul Gandhi and Tejashwi Yadav, which is making its way across 20 districts of the state where they are making serious allegations against the ruling BJP of vote theft, has increased the heat on the ruling dispensation.