New Delhi: As BJP sets its target to strengthen the party's base where it either performed poor in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections or was stripped of power due to the political upheaval, Union Home Minister Amit Shah is slated to visit Bihar next month. Since BJP faced a major embarrassment by breaking the alliance with JD(U) recently, Shah's visit to the state is significant.
Party sources said that embarking on the 'Mission 2024', the former BJP president will hold public meetings in Purnia and Kishanganj during his two-day tour of Bihar from September 23. He will also interact with party workers of Seemanchal area. Important issues such as infiltration as several districts in Seemanchal suffer a heavy concentration of Muslim population will be addressed by Shah, BJP sources confirmed. Moreover, out of the four Lok Sabha seats in the region, BJP won only one- Araria, while its erstwhile alliance partner- JD(U) won from Katihar and Purnia, the two traditional BJP seats. The Kishanganj Lok Sabha seat went to Congress. On the other hand, out of the 24 assembly constituencies in the region, the present RJD-JD(U)- led 'Mahagathbandhan' comprising the Congress and the Left has 16 MLAs in a House of 243.
Of the 16, the Congress and the RJD have 5 MLAs each, while JD(U) has 4. Meanwhile, JD(U) top brass claimed that BJP is putting effort into engineering communal tension in the sensitive bordering area. The Muslim pollution is almost 68 per cent in the Seemanchal area. As almost two years are left for the next general elections, BJP has already set up a four-member committee to draw up a strategy to win over 74,000 polling booths where the party had performed poorly during the 2019 polls.
Shah will also visit Jodhpur in September. The national executive meeting of the BJP's OBC Morcha is scheduled to be held in Jodhpur from September 10-12. This is important as Other Backward Classes (OBCs) form a big voter base for the BJP in other states. In Rajasthan, they account for over half of the population. Moreover, the assembly elections in Rajasthan are slated for December 2023.