Narendra Modi at the Hunkar Rally in Patna

Patna, Dec. 21: Narendra Modi would visit the state in January or early February to address a couple of public meetings.

This would be Modi’s second visit to Bihar since his October 27 Hunkar Rally.

State BJP president Mangal Pandey said: “We have identified Purnea, Bhagalpur, Gaya, Motihari and Muzaffarpur for Modi’s public rallies. Of these, our prime ministerial candidate is likely to visit two to three places for addressing rallies,” Pandey said.

However, Pandey — accompanied by state vice-president Sanjay Mayukh and party spokesmen Prem Ranjan Patel, Ashok Bhatt and Rakesh Singh — refused to clarify the dates on which Modi is likely to visit Bihar.

“We had requested Modi to address a few rallies and he had consented for it. But now it all depends on weather conditions. If the weather is not conducive for his visit, the dates may be extended and he may even visit in February,” Pandey said.

He also made it clear that Modi’s visit should not be seen as part of election campaign for the general elections. For the Lok Sabha polls, Modi would visit the state again.

Asked whether or not Modi would visit Nalanda, the home turf of chief minister Nitish Kumar who snapped his party’s 17-year alliance after Modi’s projection as prime ministerial candidate by the BJP, Pandey said the party had decided to organise separate public rally in Nalanda between February 1 and 5.

Modi has, so far, visited Bihar twice. First, Modi visited the state to address Hunkar Rally, which hit the headlines following a serial blasts killing six persons and injuring more than 100 on October 27. Later, Modi visited the state on November 2 to console the families of victims of the Gandhi Maidan blasts.

Pandey also criticised the Nitish government’s decision for not constituting a committee to inquire into basic issue of how terrorists managed to come, install the bombs at venue and went away. This issue is not being dealt by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), he added.

He also announced the constitution of the party’s environment cell and appointed Rajesh Kumar Sinha its state convener. Sinha said the party’s newly formed cell would start a drive from December 25 to plant 89,000 trees in the next one year.

“We have decided to start plantation drive on the occasion of 89th birthday of party patriarch and former Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee. The drive would be completed in one year,” Sinha said.