Bihar CM holds video meet with JDU leaders on assembly poll preparations

New Delhi: JDU President and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar is not only closely monitoring the Covid-19 situation in the state but also connecting with party workers through video link on the strategy for the upcoming assembly polls. Kumar’s day begins with collecting feedback on the Covid-19 situation at the ground level. He then acts on the shortcomings in the state’s relief measures, and then interacts with party cadres to get them ready for the coming polls, ET has learnt.

Kumar’s poll initiative started some two weeks ago, and sources said it takes up about six hours each day. Unlike his counterparts in other states, Kumar faces a different challenge in view of the coming assembly polls. Sources in JDU said Kumar has so far contacted more than 1,250 party functionaries — from the block/city president level to the state level. JDU MPs, MLAs, MLCs and former MPs and MLAs are also approached for feedback under the CM’s political plan for ground-level connect amid the coronavirus crisis. “CM Kumar first gives hearing to the feedback he gets from party cadres. Only towards the end he gives his own idea about the political way forward during Covid,” said Ram Bihari Singh, JDU’s National Executive Committee member who participated in the video conference talks with Kumar on Wednesday.

JDU’s political management team selects party cadres of at least three districts for the videolink meeting, according to sources. On Wednesday, Kumar had interacted with party workers from Buxar, Bhojpur and Patna districts. “He has now touched all the 38 districts. Now, he would hold talks with JDU’s ‘Kshetriya Sangathan Prabahari (regional organizational heads)’ through video conference,” another source in JDU said.


Kumar’s main focus remains the role of his party cadres in the fight to contain the spread of coronavirus. “His message is that party cadres must keep a close vigil on the delivery of several government schemes which his government has launched for the benefit of poor people. Besides, he wants his party worker to prompt people to coordinate with the administration,” another JDU source said.