Amit Shah to visit Bihar next month, first time since BJP lost power

Union Home Minister Amit Shah will be in Bihar next month on his first trip to the state since a political upheaval stripped the BJP of power, a senior party leader said here on Monday.

According to the BJP leader, Shah, considered the party’s principal strategist, will be visiting the Seemanchal region, which shares borders with Bangladesh and has a heavy concentration of Muslim population, on September 23-24.

“The honourable Home Minister will be covering the districts of Purnea and Kishanganj as part of his two-day programme. Besides interaction with party workers, public meetings are also scheduled,” the BJP leader told PTI.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U), which severed its alliance with the BJP last month, reacted to the development with predictable consternation.

“The BJP’s politics hinges on engineering communal tensions. This is getting reflected in the choice of the place for the very first trip of the Union Home Minister,” JD(U) parliamentary board chief Upendra Kushwaha said.

“But it will prove to be of no avail. The BJP’s plan to cash in on communalism in Bihar will fail just like it did in West Bengal ahead of the assembly elections last year,” said the JD(U) leader whose party has formed a new government as part of a “Mahagathbandhan” that includes the RJD, Congress and the Left.