Bjp Save-Bihar Rally Intended To Show Samata Its Place

The BJP plans a massive save Bihar rally in Patna on February 27. This is intended as much to embarrass Bihar Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav as it is to demonstrate the partys strength to its alliance partner, the Samata Party.

BJP leaders say they hope this would force the Samata to agree to taking a smaller number of Assembly seats in future alliance negotiations with the BJP.

The BJP has been wary of the Samata leaders growing confidence since the states recent Assembly elections and their resultant assertion that they would demand at least 50 per cent Assembly seats for any understanding with the BJP in Bihar.

 

BJP leaders obviously did not like this as they see the Samata Party as the partys junior partner in any understanding in Bihar. They hold that the Samatas demand for fifty per cent seats is unrealistic. The Samata Party has been intentionally kept out of the save Bihar rally, he pointed out, saying that the rally would make the Samata know its position.

The results of the Assembly by-elections, in which the Samata performed better than the BJP, cannot be the yardstick for future understanding, he clarified.

At least four lakh people from more than 7,000 panchayats would assemble for the rally, according to an estimate by the partys state unit. The rally has been timed keeping in view the likelihood of a CBI chargesheet against the Chief Minister for his alleged involvement in the multi-crore fodder scam.

The rally could be turned into a mass dharna at Yadavs residence in case the CBI chargesheets him by then, a senior BJP leader said while commenting on the possibilities. He said he felt the CBI has a strong case against Yadav and that a chargesheet against him was only a matter of time.

In case Yadav was not chargesheeted by then, the party would decentralise its movement against him at the block levels. The party would be more successful in keeping the momentum of it anti-Laloo Yadav campaign at the block levels as the state government would fail to make decentralised deployment of its police force, the BJP leaders said. The state is already short of police personnel, he pointed out.