New Delhi: The BJP high command is concerned about the feedback that it has received from Bihar, as per which the party’s ministers in the Nitish Kumar Cabinet are facing widespread anti-incumbency from their own voters because they stayed away from their constituencies during the past five years. The central leadership is also worried due to the anger among mid-level party workers who have started coming out in the open against the practice of “nepotism” that is happening in the state, especially in and around Patna, where senior leaders, rather than rewarding the workers, are now trying to establish their kith and kin in the party.
These two crucial feedbacks, Patna-based party functionaries said, has also been shared with Bihar party in-charge Bhupender Yadav by Nagendra “Ji”, General Secretary Organisation, Bihar BJP, when Yadav had come to Patna recently.
On Saturday, national joint general secretary (organisation), Saudan Singh arrived in Patna on a two-day visit during which he will be taking feedback from the party workers on these two issues. Incidentally, all the 17 Lok Sabha MPs from Bihar were also asked to attend a meeting on Saturday with party president Jagat Prakash Nadda in Delhi.
The level of dissent among the party workers can be gauged from the fact that last week, Sushma Sahu, who has been the state president of the BJP Mahila Morcha and the vice president of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), Bihar, published a half-page ad in a local newspaper asserting her claim for a ticket for the forthcoming elections from the Bankipur Assembly seat of Patna. This seat is presently held by her party colleague, Nitin Nabin Sinha, who is the son of veteran party leader Nabin Kishore Sinha.
Similarly, the party’s sitting MLA from Kumhrar seat of Patna, Arun Kumar Sinha, is facing a lot of anger from party workers as he has been trying to “save” his seat for his son Ashish. Reliable party sources told The Sunday Guardian that senior party workers of Kumhrar and post holders within the party have drafted a letter against Sinha which has been sent to the party leadership, highlighting why the party needs to field a new candidate from the Kumhrar seat. “For the last 15 years, we have worked for Arunji in the hope that when the time comes, one of us will be asked to contest the seat, but it is clear that Ashish is being groomed to take over the role of his father. If this happens, what will be the difference between us and the Congress? Why will a BJP worker devote time and money if nepotism is going to be the only criterion to determine who will get the ticket,” a senior party functionary told The Sunday Guardian. Incidentally, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, when he was the party in-charge of undivided Madhya Pradesh during the 1998 Assembly elections, had clearly told senior leaders like Sunder Lal Patwa, Kailash Joshi, Vikram Verma and V.K. Saklecha, that till the time he was the in-charge of Madhya Pradesh, he will not give tickets to the kith and kin of party leaders. And Modi kept his words despite knowing that it will anger the party stalwarts.
According to Patna-based party functionaries, all the Assembly seats in Patna have become “hereditary holdings” which has demoralised the ordinary workers.
“In Digha, the seat is held by Sanjeev Chaurasia, whose father Gangaji is a Governor and a former MLC. Nand Kishore Yadav, who is an MLA from Patna East, is grooming his son, Nitin, to take over the seat when he ‘retires’, Patliputra Lok Sabha MP Ram Kirpal Yadav is trying to secure an Assembly ticket for his son Abhimanyu from Maner or Paliganj (both are adjoining Patna). Patna-based party veteran C.P. Thakur has already ensured a Rajya Sabha seat for his son Vivek. Where does this leave ordinary party workers like us?” said a party functionary, while explaining why the workers have started referring to the seats in and around Patna as “hereditary holdings”.
In the midst of all this, the party leadership has deputed Shivanand Dwivedi, who has written a book on Amit Shah, to manage the media in Patna and handle dissemination of news. Dwivedi has already been allocated a room in the Patna office of the party. “The existing Patna-based party spokespersons have been given charge of different parts of the state so that the party’s views and campaign news can be shared in a coordinated way,” a party spokesperson said.