BJP High Level Meeting In Delhi On April 10 To Discuss Next Bihar CM

By Dev Raj

Patna: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has called a high-level meeting in Delhi on April 10 to discuss about the next chief minister of Bihar.

Party president Nitin Nabin will preside over the meeting which will be attended by several state and central leaders. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, several central ministers, Bihar BJP president Sanjay Saraogi, regional general secretary (organisation) for Bihar – Jharkhand Nagendra Nath Tripathi and state general secretary (organisation) for Bihar Bhikhubhai Dalsaniya are also likely to attended the meeting.

The invitees also include Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai, Bihar Deputy Chief Ministers Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha, ministers Mangal Pandey, Dilip Kumar Jaiswal and a few others considered frontrunners in the race for the chief minister’s post.

The meeting will officially seek names of prospective candidates for the top job in Bihar, and will analyse their strengths and weaknesses. The opinion of senior leaders will also be considered, and the final decision will be left to the top leadership. Asked about the agenda for the Delhi meeting, Bihar BJP president Saraogi tried to sidestep the question.

“I have no idea about the meeting or its agenda. I don’t even know if I am going there. Will let you know if there is anything definite,” Saraogi told ETV Bharat. Some of the BJP leaders wondered whether such meetings or consulting the state unit's core group mattered in the present era when the central leadership makes such decisions.

“Earlier, the BJP or National Democratic Alliance (NDA) legislature party used to choose the chief minister, but the situation has changed over the last few years. The central leadership of our party now makes the decision. We think the Prime Minister will take the final call,” a senior Bihar BJP leader told ETV Bharat. The senior leader asserted that the selection of the new chief minister will have a lasting impact on contemporary and long-term politics.

“The choice will indicate whether the BJP has bowed to Bihar's caste equations and caste-based politics, or is trying to break or overcome them. It will also reveal whether the focus is on better governance or on playing safe to keep the vote bank of Nitish’s JD(U) secure and happy. Neighbouring Uttar Pradesh is going to polls early next year and the caste politics of Bihar has some influence there also. Picking up a suitable leader to become the chief minister is going to be a tough decision for the party this time,” the BJP leader reasoned.

The BJP opted for relatively lesser known leaders as its chief ministers in Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Chhattisgarh over the last few years. It would be interesting to see if the trend is followed in Bihar too.

Incidentally, the meeting will coincide with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s oath as a Rajya Sabha member. Some of the senior BJP leaders are also expected to be present to witness the historic occasion, when he (Nitish) would enter the select club of politicians who have been members of both the Houses of the Parliament and the state legislature.

Nitish is yet to announce the date he will quit as the chief minister. He can hold the position until the end of September without being a member of either House of the state legislature. The selection of the BJP’s first chief minister in Bihar will also reveal whether Nitish was consulted or if the party—currently the largest with 88 seats in the 243-member Assembly – has decided to step out of his shadow.

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