By IANS,
Patna : The Bihar capital has turned saffron with posters, banners and flags of the Bharatiya Janta Party dotting the city a day ahead of its two-day national executive meeting beginning here Saturday, where the party will deliberate on a winning strategy for the coming state assembly poll.
With the BJP holding a national executive meeting here after 16 years, the party’s state unit is trying to ensure the big event goes off well. “Patna is ready for the big day. We have made every possible arrangement for it,” state BJP chief C.P.Thakur told IANS.
Bright saffron colour can be seen everywhere in Patna, from roads to market places to pavements and hotels. Hundreds of vehicles with BJP’s flags are seen parked at many places.
“Patna has been saffronised,” local party leader Sanjay Mayukh said.
BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad told media persons here Thursday that the meet will discuss the wining political strategy to be adopted for the Bihar assembly polls due in October-November this year. It will also discuss the current political situation in neighbouring Jharkhand following imposition of president’s rule.
The BJP leaders will also take up for deliberations the growing threat posed by Maoists, the “poor performance” of the United Progressive Alliance government, and plans to expose its “step-motherly treatment” of non-Congress-ruled states.
Prasad said the BJP would also target the Congress over the Bhopal gas tragedy and the way Warren Anderson, the then chief of Union Carbide Corps, escaped from the country.
He said the meet will open at 11 a.m. Saturday with the chanting of Vande Matram.
Thakur said the party was making all efforts to ensure the rally Sunday is a grand success and a historic one. “It would have a direct impact on the forthcoming assembly polls in Bihar,” he said.
The executive meeting would be attended by BJP president Nitin Gadkari, party veteran L.K. Advani, chief ministers of BJP-ruled states like Narendra Modi (Gujarat), Raman Singh (Chhattisgarh) and Shivraj Singh Chouhan (Madhya Pradesh), senior leaders Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Rajnath Singh and Murli Manohar Joshi.
“Party leaders, including Gadkari and Advani, would start arriving from Friday itself to take part in the meetings followed by the ‘Bihar Swabhiman’ rally June 13,” Thakur said.
The rally will mark the launch of the party’s election campaign in Bihar. The main speaker will be Modi, who is visiting Bihar for the first time after the Nitish Kumar-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government came to power in the state four and a half years ago.
Modi and Advani will be treated as the state’s guests during their visit. Also, Nitish Kumar would host a dinner for the visiting BJP leaders.
Thakur said traditional Bihari delicacies would be part of the menu for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the visiting BJP leaders.