nHow do you prepare to galvanise the party members for the 2014 election?
Our party leaders are well prepared for the 2014 election, it is a challenging job to throw out the UPA government and Bihar will play a pivotal role in the job. The NDA's aim in the state is to win all 40 seats and 56,000 booths. We are taking every possible step to strengthen the organisation and to make the party stronger. For Bihar, the central government is adopting policies which ignore downtrodden people.
The BJP will bring those downtrodden people in the mainstream politics and take them together. I am trying my level best to make the party stronger and to expose the UPA government.
For that, we are ensuring the participation of common people. The NDA government in Bihar is talking about development and our party will make people aware about the achievements of the state.
nYour elevation to the post has triggered uproar among the senior leaders. How do you react to that?
With the blessings of all senior leaders and their support, I have been given the post and I have all respect for them. The senior leaders have great respect in the party and I am working hard for the party.
nIn Bihar, the BJP is considered playing second fiddle to the JD(U) in the alliance. Your comments on it.
It is obvious that we have less number of seats in the Assembly, so we will be second. However, we have our own leaders and there is a galaxy of leadership in the party. We are a big group, with 26 lakh party members and 60,000 active members. It is a party that thinks about every society and that is the reason we have 92 elected members in the Assembly.
In the coming days, BJP is planning more seats in the Assembly. We have several plans ahead to strengthen the structure of the party, especially on April 6, 2013, when the party celebrates its foundation day. We are always sensitive towards Bihar and the people of Bihar.
nDo you think that the alliance would survive in the view of chief minister Nitish Kumar's stand?
The BJP and JD(U) alliance is intact, it is a 17-year-old alliance and we have fought the elections in the past 10 years together. After every election, our alliance becomes stronger and the people of the state have always supported our alliance. We will keep contesting the coming elections together. As far as the stand of chief minister Nitish Kumar is concerned, the matter is dealt in the NDA meeting. It is a national-level matter. Only the national leadership will decide on his stand. Whatever decision the BJP takes at the national level, Bihar BJP will follow it. There should not be any confusion or doubt about that.
People have the right to say anything but only election results would show how the alliance is unbreakable. The people of the state have trust in the alliance, which again I emphasis is intact. We would surely fight the next election together.
nC.P. Thakur and Tarakant Jha are the sidelines for the post of state unit president. Is there any role for the senior leaders in the party as you are a young leader?
I believe in Indian culture, where the father-son relationship is deeply rooted in our society. The same thing we follow in the BJP. Son always takes the guidance of the father and father also expects the same from the son. I mean to say that senior leaders are like my fathers and their roles are very important to me and the party. There should not be any difficulty in that relation, their feelings need to be considered too. There cannot be any personal grudge between father and son, that's the Indian culture and the party is not above it. The party has its own constitution. The way we all follow it, there are no difficulties at all.
Your profile was low till last year. There are dozens of BJP leaders better known than you. Is it difficult for you to execute the programmes with such senior leaders?
I already said that we follow the father-son relation. So, how it can be difficult for me to execute the programme? Their suggestions and opinions are always taken and they are the ones who have chosen me for the post. I am in the party for the past 24 years and there is always a family feeling. I have the blessings of my family members. Issues would be solved and executed through co-ordination and discussion. There should not be any internal conflict in the party.
What would you have been had you not been a politician?
I would have been a cricketer because I was very much into this game, I had also formed Sunny Cricket Club in 1984. I was an all-rounder and the captain of my school- and college-level teams.
About Mangal Pandey
The son of Awadesh Pandey and late Premlata Pandey, Pandey was born on August 9, 1969 in Balia village of Maharajganj block in Siwan district. Went to his village high school till Class VIII and completed his matriculation from Devi Dayal High School in Patna.
The leader is a political science graduate from Patna University and holds an MA from a deemed university in Rajasthan. He was a member of Vidyarthi Parishad from 1987 to 1989, became the executive member of the Maharajganj BJP block working committee for the first time in 1990 and then a member of the BJP district working committee in 1994. In 1995, Pandey became a BJP state youth working committee member and jumped to be a zonal-in-charge of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha in 1996. In 1998, he became the state secretary of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha followed by the state president of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha in 2000.
In 2003, he became the BJP zonal-in-charge, remained the BJP general secretary from 2005 to January 17, 2013 and was elected as the BJP state unit president on January 18, 2013.
His wife, Urmila, is a homemaker and son Harsh Kumar Pandey a Class VII student.
