BJP forced to redraw Bihar strategy

The BJP central leadership had sensed deterioration in ties but never expected the alliance with JDU to unravel in a fortnight, a senior party leader said after Nitish Kumar quit the NDA on Tuesday. The party, however, sees an opportunity along with the new challenge in Bihar, where Kumar has been its ally since the mid-1990s, baring 2013-17.

BJP leaders maintained that the 2020 assembly NDA mandate was primarily for BJP than for JDU and it had diminished Kumar's stature. A senior functionary said Kumar "resented that he was upstaged by BJP in the assembly polls and submitted to mind games and internal politicking."

BJP had recently organised a national executive of its frontal organisations in Patna. Ahead of the meet, 418 leaders from different parts of the country toured the state's 200 assembly seats, while skipping the 43 constituencies JDU had won in 2020. However, it will focus on all seats ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. It is already conducting an assembly-wise survey on the ground situation and working on 'weak booths' across all 40 Lok Sabha constituencies.


The BJP recognises the challenge of contesting polls in Bihar possibly with only minor allies against a strong caste-based combination of RJD and JDU in 2024. NDA had won 39 out of 40 seats in 2019, when Kumar and Paswan were allies and BJP leaders accept that repeating 2019 would be a challenge in 2024.

However, at a meeting of Bihar BJP core group leaders in Patna after Kumar formally called off the alliance, leaders unequivocally said the party had to hit the streets to 'expose' Kumar and tell the people how he 'betrayed' the mandate of the people and joined hands with 'those who represented jungle raj'.

Besides identifying issues to focus on, BJP has started the exercise of projecting a few young leaders for the future. However, at the moment, palpable anger against Kumar is strong. "He has never been a straight talker. It impacted our campaign in 2020. But we moved on, considering the state's interests," claimed a senior leader.