PATNA: A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi advised people of Bihar to rise above caste politics, his party leaders were seen busy attending caste meetings in their preparation for upcoming Assembly poll.
Senior BJP leaders including Sushil Kumar Modi, Nand Kishore Yadav and Bihar party chief Mangal Pandey attended a function of 'Goswamis' here today. The Bihar BJP is all set to launch a membership drive from Monday in which new members who registered themselves with the saffron party online would be asked to fill membership form having a column on caste.
This comes against the backdrop of Modi asking the people of Bihar to rise above caste considerations and support the most virtuous yesterday. "You cannot rule with the help of one or two castes...If you do not rise above caste, Bihar's social development will suffer," he had said quoting poet Dinkar's letter.
Bihar BJP chief Mangal Pandey, however, told reporters that the membership form having column of caste was an old practice to "prepare complete profile of the new member." "We wish to maintain record of complete profile of our members with the state headquarters and that is why comprehensive information is sought," he said.
Out of about 1.1 crore new members enrolled in BJP across the country, Bihar contributed 95 lakh in the online drive launched by the Prime Minister and party chief Amit Shah. On BJP leaders attending caste meetings head of poll, the Bihar BJP chief said,"none of such caste programmes are organised by party members. BJP leaders go there not for sake of vote bank but to boost faith of these people and bring them in the mainstream of development."
Union minister Ravishankar Prasad had recently graced a function here to eulogies legendary king Ashoka whom the organisers claimed was of OBC Kushwaha caste.