Patna, Oct. 16: Close on the heels of BJP leader L.K. Advani’s Jan Chetna Yatra that was flagged off from Bihar on October 11, the party’s state unit is planning to launch another yatra.

Party Bihar unit president C.P. Thakur intends to launch Jan Hit Yatra later this year. “The purpose of the proposed yatra is to feel the pulse of the people and also the ground realities in different parts of the state,” Thakur told The Telegraph.

He, however, made it clear that the final decision about the yatra would be taken only after discussing things in detail with the party. “I have made up my mind for the yatra and would let the party know about it before giving it a final shape,” added the BJP president.

Citing reasons for his plan to embark on a yatra, Thakur said: “Our party is part of the coalition government of the state and being the BJP president, I feel duty-bound to reach out to the people to know from them whether they are happy with the performance of our government or not. I also want to assess whether the benefits of various steps taken by the state government for the well-being of the people are reaching to them or not.”

Thakur said he also intended to thank people of Bihar, who extended unprecedented support to the BJP during the 2010 Assembly elections with the party winning about 90 per cent of the seats it had contested.

When his attention was drawn towards the fact that his yatra might be a duplication of efforts on part of the NDA as chief minister Nitish Kumar, too, was scheduled to launch a yatra after Chhath festival that has been christened Seva Yatra, the BJP president said: “The chief minister would go to people as a representative of the government, whereas I would be going to them as a representative of the party.”

He added that his yatra would provide yet another channel to people to convey their feelings. “The BJP, on its part, would use this feedback to assess the problems and expectations of the people and would provide the feedback to the state government so that it could use this information for the betterment of the people,” Thakur said.

It is not that octogenarian Thakur would be embarking on a yatra for the first time, rather he had undertaken one Jan Naman Yatra two months ahead of the 2010 Assembly elections.

“I had received a very good response of people during the course of my previous yatra. I hope that when I embark on the proposed Jan Hit Yatra, people would turn out in large number to share their real feelings with me,” he said.