New Delhi: Hard work pays off and it really proved right in the case of BJP's Bihar unit president Nityanand Rai, who has been picked for the post of Minister of State for Home Affairs in the Narendra Modi's cabinet.
Rai, which is claimed to be a trusted lieutenant of BJP's national chief Amit Shah, has been awarded for winning 39 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in the state for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Rai will be the junior minister of Shah.
Rai has successfully executed Shah's plan on the ground and ensured a complete
routing of opposition parties in Bihar.
As he belongs to the Yadav community, which constitutes a lion's share in terms of vote share in Bihar, Rai implemented Shah's strategy to bring Yadav voters to their side.
It's not that Rai is the first Yadav who was given the baton of Bihar BJP chief. Earlier, the post was led by Nand Kishore Yadav, who had failed to make inroads into Yadav vote-share.
Rai was given the responsibility of the party in 2016 when the BJP was said to be divided into several factions and its morale was at an all-time low after having lost to the grand alliance miserably in 2015. Shah saw in Rai the spark and ignored several senior faces in Bihar to lead the party.
In 2014, he won from the Ujiyarpur Lok Sabha constituency against RJD's Alok Mehta by more than 60,000 votes.
This time too, he was re-elected from the seat by defeating Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) president Upendra Kushwaha by over a lakh votes.