BJP banks on Central ministers for Bihar polls

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday appointed MoS Home Nityanand Rai as the president for the party’s election-related operations in the run up to the Bihar assembly polls.

Sanjay Jaiswal, president of the Bihar BJP unit, said 70 members in his team will look after the election-related issues.

Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has been appointed as the election campaign committee president in Bihar.

Senior BJP leaders Rajiv Pratap Rudy and Syed Shahnawaz Hussain have been given charge to assist Prasad.

Jaiswal said that Mangal Pandey, health minister of Bihar, has been made the election management committee president while agriculture minister Prem Kumar was named the election manifesto committee president.

In the last assembly election, the BJP contested alone and bagged 55 seats, while the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) which was part of the Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) along with the RJD had 69 seats.

The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) emerged as the single largest party with 74 seats, while the Congress got 26 seats.

After differences emerged between the JD-U and the RJD, the former had walked out from the Grand Alliance and formed the government along with the BJP.

–IANS