PATNA: After failing to beat the Lalu Prasad-Nitish Kumar combine in Bihar’s 2015 Assembly polls despite an impressive show in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the state BJP is consciously eyeing Muslim voters. This is precisely why the party plans to hold its state executive meeting in Muslim-majority Kishanganj next month.
With Muslims comprising about 78 per cent of the population in Kishanganj, it is Bihar’s only district and Lok Sabha constituency where Muslims outnumber Hindus. Located close to the Bangladesh border, Kishanganj is also India’s largest Muslim-populated area after the Kashmir Valley and Lakshadweep. BJP state president Nityanand Rai, who belongs to the OBC Yadav caste and was appointed to the post in November last, handpicked Kishanganj as the venue for the first state executive meeting under him, said party sources.
While wooing Bihar’s OBCs is currently BJP’s top priority, it is also working to make itself acceptable to the state’s Muslims and wean them away from what it calls the “pseudo-secularism” of CM Nitish Kumar and his ally RJD chief Lalu Prasad. “The state executive meeting being held at Kishanganj on May 2 and 3 will make significant contributions in achieving that aim,” said a state BJP general secretary.
In Bihar’s north-eastern districts that have a sizeable Muslim population, BJP’s performance has worsened in recent polls. In Kishanganj LS constituency, the last time BJP won was in 1999 (Syed Shahnawaz Hussain). In 2014, despite the Modi wave, Mohammad Asrarul Haque of Congress beat BJP’s Dilip Jaiswal here.
Similarly, in nearby Katihar, where Muslims account for 43 per cent of the population, NCP’s Tariq Anwar beat BJP’s Nikhil Kumar Chaudhary. In Araria, with a 41 per cent Muslim population, RJD’s Mohammad Taslimuddin beat BJP’s Pradip Kumar Singh.
Similarly, in Purnea (37 per cent Muslims), JD(U)’s Santosh Kumar trounced BJP’s Uday Singh, and in Bhagalpur (18 per cent Muslims), RJD’s Shailesh Kumar Mandal beat BJP’s Syed Shahnawaz Hussain in 2014 LS polls. BJP finds the loss of these seats particularly painful considering that RJD and JD(U) had not contested in alliance.
The 2015 Assembly polls presented a similar picture for BJP in these border districts. The saffron party lost all the four Assembly seats in Kishanganj.
“Kishanganj was chosen for the executive meet in keeping with our stress on organising meetings away from urban areas so that the party directly reaches out to people in the hinterlands,” said BJP state chief Rai, MP from Ujiarpur.
A senior BJP leader said holding the meeting in Kishanganj will boost the morale of the party workers in the entire region and galvanise them for the 2019 LS polls. All central ministers from Bihar, MPs, MLAs and state functionaries of BJP will gather for the meeting where the party will set its agenda to dethrone Bihar’s Nitish Kumar-led grand alliance government.