Politically significant visit by Amit Shah to Bihar on Saturday

By Payal Mehta
New Delhi [India], February 22 : Union Home Minister Amit Shah will travel to three states, including Bihar, over the next three days as part of the Bharatiya Janta Party's preparations in run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Shah will be in poll-bound Karnataka on Thursday while on Friday he will be in Madhya Pradesh which is also slated to go for polls at the year-end, and on Saturday Shah will be in Bihar.
The key highlight is Shah's visit to Bihar. The recent developments in the state have seen a renewed push by the BJP. After breaking of the alliance with JDU, the BJP wants to approach the state wirh a dual focus- on the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and the state polls due in 2025.
A big public rally will be held on Saturday in West Champaran which is the home constituency of state BJP president Sanjay Jaiswal. Jaiswal's term as state president has ended close to 6 months ago, however, no changes have been indicated so far by the party.
West Champaran, which is part of the BJP focus area through the Lok Sabha Pravas yojana has been a happy hunting ground for the saffron party with it winning in both 2014 and 2019 by a good margin.
"We are hoping to see a crowd of anywhere between 75,000 to 1,00000 for the janasabha of the Home Minister. Preparations have been in full swing, "Jaiswal tells ANI.
With the constant political remarks made by Nitish Kumar, the saffron party wants to see how to exploit the political uncertainty.
Shah even if now is the Union Home Minister still is a very strong organisational resource for the BJP. It was under his tenure as the party president that BJP got major electoral successes.
Speculation is also rife that Upendra Kushwaha may also meet Shah during his visit. Though, no confirmation has been made by both sides so far. Kushwaha very recently had a "courtesy" meeting with Jaiswal.
Kushwaha was a minister in the Modi government after his party won three Lok Sabha seats in 2014. He has recently floated his own party.
Shah's core group meeting with the state leaders, even if not part of his released schedule will be a vital thing to watch out for. He is likely to seek feedback from the state leaders about the ground situation and the programmes undertaken so far.
Under the NDA fold Nitish Kumar's JDU and BJP formed an alliance government in Bihar in 2020. However, in August 2022, kumar pulled out of the NDA government and formed a government with the Tejaswi Yadav-led RJD. Nitish continues to be the Chief Minister even under the new alliance.
Kumar has also called like-minded opposition parties to unite in 2024 in a bid to defeat the BJP-led NDA alliance.