The BJP will sound the poll bugle in Bihar next week with a 'virtual rally' by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who will address the people of the state through video conference and Facebook live, a senior party leader said on Monday.
Sanjay Jaiswal, the state president of the BJP, said the party has set a target of roping in "at least one lakh people across the 243 assembly segments in Bihar" for the video conference, besides those who may prefer to listen to the speech on the social networking site.
"The virtual rally can be verily called the commencement of our digital campaign for assembly elections in Bihar. The June 9 rally by the home minister will be followed by similar public addresses from party president J.P. Nadda on a later date. Itinerary for the same will be made known in due course. Nadda is expected to address the people in two phases covering north and south Bihar," he said.
Assembly elections are due later this year. The BJP has been sharing power with the JD(U) headed by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar since 2005, barring a four-year gap from 2013-17.
Notably, Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, also a veteran BJP leader, had recently ruffled many feathers when he spoke of the possibility of digital campaigns and online voting replacing old-style massive rallies and the long queues outside polling booths, in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak.
The opposition in Bihar on Monday lashed out at the BJP for the proposed "virtual rally". RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, who chose to join the battle for eyeballs by observing a 'Garib Adhikar Diwas' (rights of the poor day) on June 9, around the same time when Shah is scheduled to make his address, said the saffron party should instead seek forgiveness of the people for its "indifference" to their plight during the lockdown.
"We appeal to all people of Bihar to observe the Garib Adhikar Diwas at their homes, beating utensils as a mark of protest against the BJP government," Yadav said at a press conference, convened shortly after the saffron party's state unit chief Sanjay Jaiswal announced Shah's programme.
Senior Congress leader Prem Chandra Mishra, whose party is an alliance partner of the RJD, said in a strongly worded statement, the BJP's "political move and the celebratory mood" it has displayed over completion of one year of NDA-2 government, are indicative of the party's "insensitivity".
He also expressed concern over the 'Unblock 1.0' that has been set in motion, saying it appeared the government has "left the people to fend for themselves in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic".
-Inputs from PTI
