No household left behind: Modi's message to partymen ahead of Bihar polls

Prime Minister tasks BJP workers with visiting every household and using videos to raise awareness on Centre and state government welfare schemes

Weeks ahead of the scheduled Bihar Assembly elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday addressed Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers in the state, urging them to visit every single household and raise awareness about the welfare schemes introduced by the Centre and the incumbent Nitish Kumar-led government.

 

"Party wins when every booth is strong. I request all booth workers to inform each family in their area about government benefits available to them," Modi said while interacting with party workers through the NaMo app.

 

For deeper outreach to voters in the poll-bound state, he suggested that booth workers also show and share videos about various government schemes to people in their areas.

 

 

Awareness through events and exhibitions

 

Modi also encouraged BJP workers to organise special events for women in their areas on Bhai Dooj and to take young people to 'exhibitions' across Bihar, highlighting the atrocities committed during the ‘jungle raj’ period.

 

"Youth have not witnessed the days of jungle raj in Bihar, when Naxalism was at its peak. They must be made aware of that period. We cannot risk bringing back those who could allow a resurgence of Naxalism. It is the might of votes of people of Bihar that has saved the state from evil eyes of RJD and Congress, and it will happen again,” he said, as quoted by PTI.

 

BJP releases two lists of candidates

 

Earlier in the day, the BJP released a second list of 12 candidates for the upcoming elections, naming singer Maithili Thakur from Alinagar seat, former IPS officer Anand Mishra for Buxar, and Mahesh Paswan from Agiaon.

 

On Tuesday, it had released its first list of 71 candidates for the polls, which included Deputy Chief Ministers Samrat Chaudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha for Tarapur and Lakhisarai constituencies, respectively.

 

NDA seat-sharing and election schedule

 

The BJP, along with its National Democratic Alliance (NDA) ally Janata Dal (United), or JD(U), will each contest 101 seats, while Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) will fight on 29 seats.

 

The Bihar Assembly election is scheduled to take place in two phases on November 6 and 11, with results to be declared on November 14. The polls are being seen as critical to all parties involved, but are especially important for incumbent Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who has held on to the position for close to 20 years by switching sides whenever the odds seemed against him.