Bengaluru: While the BJP will celebrate its first anniversary in Modi 2.0, it will also sound the poll bugle in Bihar next week. 


It will be done by holding a virtual rally, by Union minister and party's senior leader Amit Shah. He will address the people of the state through video conference and Facebook live. 

Sanjay Jaiswal, the state president of the BJP, said the party has set a target of roping in "at least one lakh people across the 243 assembly segments in Bihar" for the video conference, besides those who may prefer to listen to the speech on the social networking site.

"The virtual rally can be verily called the commencement of our digital campaign for assembly elections in Bihar. The June 9 rally by the Home Minister will be followed by similar public addresses from party president JP Nadda on a later date. Itinerary for the same will be made known in due course. Nadda is expected to address the people in two phases covering north and south Bihar," he said.

Assembly elections are due later this year. The BJP has been sharing power with the JD(U) headed by chief minister Nitish Kumar since 2005, barring a four-year gap from 2013-17.

Notably, deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi, also a veteran BJP leader, had recently ruffled many feathers when he spoke of the possibility of digital campaigns and online voting replacing old-style massive rallies and the long queues outside polling booths, in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Media reports, quoting Election Commission sources, claim the possibility of online voting in near future has been ruled out by the poll panel.

While large gatherings are prohibited under what is being termed as 'Unlock 1.0', it remains to be seen whether conventional poll campaign involving rallies and roadshows will be allowed by the time the election schedule is announced.

"Thanks to the benevolent leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bihar is getting much more than a larger state like Maharashtra, be it in terms of financial assistance or the burden shared by the Union government for central schemes," said Jaiswal, who is also the BJP’s chief whip in the Lok Sabha.
"Be it fixing the problem of bad debts in banks, or long-standing issues like triple talaq and Article 370, the Modi government has always acted decisively," Jaiswal said.

"The low incidence and fatality rate in the country during the COVID-19 outbreak have also been by virtue of the Prime Ministers leadership. A reason why he rules the hearts of the masses and would continue to do so," he added.