Patna, Oct. 23: The BJP today put its "nationalist face" on the backburner by welcoming a politician who had once said that people join the Army to be martyred.

Former minister Bhim Singh, who comes from an extremely backward classes (EBC) community, joined the BJP today. On August 8, 2013 - a day after bodies of four jawans who lost their lives fighting militants at Poonch in Jammu and Kashmir reached Patna airport - Bhim had said: "Jawan to sena mein marne ke liye jaate hain (Jawans join the army to die in battle only)."

During the 2014 Lok Sabha election, then BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi had used Bhim's comment to attack Nitish Kumar's JDU government in Bihar. Today, BJP leaders refused to take any questions at a programme at the party office to mark Bhim's entry into the BJP. They just said that with Bhim in the party, the BJP now had many EBC leaders in its fold. Bhim took party membership in the presence of two Union ministers, Anant Kumar and Dharmendra Pradhan, and the party's state unit president Mangal Pandey.

While joining the party, Bhim attacked Nitish to say: "He (Nitish) is an arrogant man who has always humiliated the people of backward castes. He just claims he brought about development, whereas the crime rate surged under his regime. I have several examples of how he betrayed people, I will expose him soon." While joining the BJP, he also announced he would resign from the membership of the Legislative Council and vacate his government bungalow. "I still have two-and-a-half years left as MLC, but have decided to resign from the membership," he said.

Despite repeated attempts, state BJP unit president Mangal Pandey could not be contacted for his reaction on how his party could induct Bhim Singh.

The JDU blasted Bhim and called him an opportunistic person. JDU chief spokesperson Sanjay Singh sought an explanation from the Prime Minister for taking in someone who had "insulted" jawans.

JDU national executive member Pramod Chandravanshi attacked the BJP and claimed Bhim's induction in the BJP would have no effect on EBC votes.

Bhim belongs to the Chandravanshi caste, part of EBCs, which constitute about 27 per cent of Bihar's 10.38 crore population. During his induction into the BJP, senior leader Sushil Kumar Modi went on to mention that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, too, belonged to the EBC community. "We have all top EBC leaders in our fold. We have Prem Kumar, who belongs to the Chandravanshi caste. There is another Chandravanshi leader in Jharkhand, Ram Chandra Chandravanshi, who is a minister, and now Bhim Singh. We have leaders from Bind caste, like Braj Kishore Bind, who is contesting from Chainpur Assembly constituency. We have Renu Devi, a leader from the Nonia caste, who is contesting from Bettiah. We have Nishad leaders like Mukesh Sahni. We have the biggest leader of the Dalits and Mahadalits in the form of Ram Vilas Paswan and Jitan Ram Manjhi," said Sushil, adding that the RJD and JDU had no EBC face and these parties had always cheated them.

Sushil also claimed that the NDA had given more ticket to EBC candidates in comparison to the RJD and the JDU.

Bhim had joined the JDU in 2009 after deserting the RJD. He earlier held two departments - rural works and panchayati raj - under Nitish. Later, he moved to the Jitan Ram Manjhi camp but did not join his party. He was virtually out of active politics after the Manjhi government's fall in February. In between he was on a Europe tour for a month and was last seen attending an Iftar party thrown by Manjhi at his residence on July 16.

The BJP move is being seen as a step to check consolidation of backward castes in the remaining three phases of Assembly elections, during which votes would be cast for 162 seats.

The Nitish-led grand alliance has been playing the backward caste card to the hilt in Bihar after RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's statement where he underlined the need to review the reservation policy.

After coming to power in 2005, Nitish had worked hard to create a vote bank among EBCs. The work his government undertook paid rich dividends to the NDA in the 2010 elections. The general elections of 2014, however, witnessed a different trend as a large number of EBCs votes went to the BJP's kitty. Since then the BJP has been trying hard to retain these EBC voters while the JDU and RJD are leaving no stone unturned to get back their votes.