Now, BJP gears up to play Yadav card on Lalu turf

Bihar BJP legislature party leader and former deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi echoed Pandey. “Bhupendra Yadav’s organisational skills will benefit us. His surname  is an additional gain,” he said.

Bhupendra will conduct his first meeting with top Bihar leaders on November 3 before moving to Jharkhand to prepare for the Jharkhand Assembly polls. “We have conducted over 8,500 public meetings in villages in last one and a half months”, said Pandey adding that that the focus would return to Bihar after the Jharkhand polls.

The BJP’s state vice president Sanjay Mayukh added that the party already had 12 Yadav MLAs. “It is a myth that Yadavs only vote for Lalu Prasad. We always had a good support base among the community and the Lok Sabha election only reinforced it. Bhupendra Yadav will further consolidate it,” he said.

The leader of Opposition in the Assembly Nand Kishore Yadav, who once also talked of his “tea vendor background” to throw his name in the ring for BJP’s CM nominee, said: “We will surely gain from Bhupendra Yadav’s leadership. He has got the assignment because of his organisational strengths”. Regarding the surname factor, he said: “I leave it to media interpretation”.

Former JD (U) Rajya Sabha MP Shivanand Tiwari said: “NDA got 34 per cent OBC votes in Bihar in Lok Sabha polls. RJD-Congress got as much and Nitish got only 16 per cent. BJP already had a chunk of Yadav leaders including former Lalu aide Ram Kripal Yadav. Bhupendra as state in-charge will send across a strong message.”

RJD legislature party leader Abdul Bari Siddiqui said unless the RJD and JD(U) were united, the going would be tough in the next Assembly elections. “JD (U) leaders have been giving contradictory statements on grand alliance. Unless there is clarity on alliance and a common agenda, we are in for tough fight from BJP”.