Thaindian News

Patna, June 11 (IANS) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will finalise its election strategy in poll-bound Bihar when its national executive members meet here Friday during which they will pass two resolutions targeting the “failures” of the the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the centre.
The two-day national executive meet, being held in Bihar after 16 years, will boost the electoral prospects of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), state BJP unit president C.P. Thakur said.

The assembly polls in the state are due later this year and BJP leaders will highlight the achievements of the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar - the state that has logged an impressive growth rate of 11 percent in the last five years.

Party spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said the meeting will closely examine the performance of the UPA government on price rise, terrorism, Maoism and economy.

“The BJP will scrutinise the UPA government’s performance on how it handled terrorism and economy and naxalite insurgency,” Prasad told reporters in Delhi.

He said the party will also raise the issue of how the UPA meted “a step motherly treatment” to non-Congress, non-UPA ruled states.

Two resolutions will be passed in the meeting - one related to the UPA government’s one year performance and the second on its failure to control rising prices and Maoism.

The issue of the Bhopal gas tragedy is also likely to come up during the meeting.

Party chief Nitin Gadkari, parliamentary board chairman L.K. Advani, leaders of opposition in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, all national executive members, chief ministers of BJP-ruled states will attend the meeting in the state where the BJP is a major partner in the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) led government.

The two-day meet, which comes after BJP chief ministers met in Mumbai last week, is a major party convention since 53-year-old Gadkari took over as the BJP president in December last year.

In Patna, the party will held a Rashtriya Swabhiman, or national pride, rally at the conclusion of the meeting. The rally will be addressed by top party leaders to signal the launch of the Bihar poll campaign.

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi will be a prominent speaker. This comes as a surprise because his Bihar counterpart Nitish Kumar in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections had expressed reservations about Modi campaigning in the state.

The elections in Bihar will be a major challenge to the BJP president after its Jharkhand setback where the party withdrew support to the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) government after Chief Minister Shibu Soren voted for the Congress government in the Lok Sabha on the cut motions.

The withdrawal of the BJP’s support led to the imposition of president’s rule in the state.