Patna, June 3: Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath will arrive in Bihar for a two-day tour on June 15 and address public meetings.
“Our party’s popular chief minister in Uttar Pradesh will address a public meeting at Raj Maidan in Darbhanga on June 15 and at Gandhi Maidan in Patna on June 16,” Bihar BJP chief Nityanand Rai said at a news meet today. “He will also meet BJP leaders and workers during his visit.”
Adityanath’s visit, sources said, is part of the party’s work towards preparing the ground for the 2019 general election in Bihar, where the National Democratic Alliance won 31 of total 40 Lok Sabha seats, including 22 for the BJP, in 2014 but fared poorly in the Assembly elections 18 months later.
“Adityanath is an icon because he is an ideal mix of religion, tradition and modernity,” another senior BJP leader told The Telegraph on condition of anonymity. “Besides, he wields a lot of influence in the western and northwestern parts of Bihar by dint of being the head of the Gorakhnath Math (in Uttar Pradesh). His image is of being above caste tangles that are too deeply rooted in Bihar-Uttar Pradesh. His visit augurs well for our 2019 campaign for which we are warming up.”
Adityanath will also inaugurate the “Modi fest” in Patna. The central government is organising the event in three phases between May 30 and June 18 across 300 districts to spread information about its achievements.
Fifteen of the planned events are in Bihar — Aurangabad, Begusarai, Bhagalpur, Darbhanga, East Champaran, Gaya, Kishanganj, Madhepura, Munger, Muzaffarpur, Nawada, Patna, Purnea, Saran and Siwan.
Before Adityanath, his deputy, Keshav Prasad Maurya, will address public meetings in Gaya and Patna on June 10 and 11, respectively.
BJP Bihar chief Nityanand also demanded chief minister Nitish Kumar and education minister Ashok Choudhary to take responsibility of the dismal Intermediate results and resign from their posts on moral grounds.
He said the party was with the students in their hour of need and would lend them full support till their problems are resolved. He also denounced lathicharge on students while staging protests across the state.
