Narendra Modi

Patna, July 5: Pariah in the state till about a month ago, BJP poster-boy Narendra Modi has picked Bihar for his first online blitz since being anointed head of the campaign committee.

While the BJP-JD(U) alliance was intact, the Gujarat chief minister was not only restricted from coming to Bihar, mentioning his very name was forbidden with some of his own party leaders enforcing the unwritten code.

The shackles now off, tech-savvy Modi will interact tomorrow, via tele-conferencing, with 1,500 BJP leaders of Bihar and “speak his mind” on the BJP game plan in the state.

“As many as 1,500 BJP state executive members, district, block and panchayat chiefs will be online for an hour, between 6pm and 7pm tomorrow. They will listen to his views and 15 of them will ask questions. There is a palpable excitement among party workers,” said state party chief Mangal Pandey, adding that the BJP leaders would be able to listen to Modi even at their homes.

This is the first time that the BJP has organised such a massive online address. Sources said the entire technological aspect is being looked after by the Gujarat chief minister’s team in Gandhinagar. The one-hour period has been divided into three slots of 15 minutes each. In the first 15 minutes, Modi will address 500 state executive members and a few district chiefs. In the second slot, he will address 500 other district and block-level chiefs and the third slot will be for 500 panchayat members. In each session, five previously selected persons will be entitled to ask one question to Modi. An additional 15 minutes has been kept in reserve.

“We had been asked to give the mobile numbers of 1,500 BJP leaders and specify five numbers of those who would ask the question. We have selected those who can ask pertinent questions related to national and state political issues,” said former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi, recalling that even as a pracharak of the RSS, Narendra Modi used to be tech-savvy. “I also had a knack for acquiring the latest gadgets, but since then he (Narendra Modi) appears to have learnt much more than me on use of technology to reach out to the people,” Bihar’s Modi said.

This will be the Gujarat chief minister’s first “direct intervention” in Bihar politics after he was made the poll panel chief of the BJP. State BJP leaders said party workers would be motivated by directly listening to Narendra Modi on Bihar. “The fact that Narendra Modi has chosen Bihar to start his job as the poll panel chief only adds to the excitement. I have seen party workers remember that I had responded to their letter and they preserve the letter. If I talk to any party worker in far-flung places, he or she remembers it for over a year. Can you imagine then the impact Narendra Modi will have when these workers listen to his speech,” said a BJP leader.

The workers though will have to wait for some more time to see Narendra Modi in person. The BJP mascot is scheduled to address the Hunkar Rally scheduled in Gandhi Maidan, Patna, on October 27.