Don’t declare Bihar CM candidate: RSS to BJP

NEW DELHI: Taking lessons from the electoral debacle in Delhi, RSS has conveyed to BJP that the party should not project a CM face in the upcoming Bihar assembly polls. In a meeting of senior RSS and BJP leaders in Lucknow earlier this week – where RSS second in command Suresh ‘Bhaiyyaji’ Joshi and BJP chief Amit Shah were present – RSS leaders said that initial reports from the state suggested that projecting a face would be counter productive.

“RSS shared some of the reports of the Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha from Bihar, where some serious points were raised,” said a top source in BJP. “While the Lok Sabha polls saw Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar fight on their own, this time around they are together and the caste arithmetic is overwhelmingly in their favour,” said the source.

“The Bihar BJP, though strong organisationally, has a serious leadership issue. Sushil Modi is not very popular among other leaders like CP Thakur or Giriraj Singh. During the BJP-JD (U) regime, Singh had loudly opposed Nitish’s refusal to allow Modiji to campaign in Bihar and had even revolted against Sushil Modi for being a silent spectator,” said a source.

Caste wise too there are issues in projecting a leader. If the two major leaders in the assembly now, Sushil Modi or Nand Kishore Yadav are projected, as OBC faces, the support of upper castes that BJP enjoys may not be so firm.

“They may still vote, but the way they used to mobilize voters may not happen. This is not like Maharashtra or Haryana, where a non-Maratha and a non-Jat could be made CM, in the immediate aftermath of Lok Sabha polls,” said a source in RSS.

“A Delhi-type situation can arise, where the organisation and workers stay home and the party loses,” if a leader is projected in advance, added the source.