BJP's Hari Sahani.
Credit: X/@harisahanibjp
The BJP has announced that its MLC Hari Sahani will be the leader of the opposition in the Bihar legislative council.
The announcement was made at the BJP state headquarters by the party's Bihar unit chief Samrat Choudhary on Sunday, in the presence of senior leaders like Union minister Nityanand Rai and leader of the opposition in the assembly Vijay Kumar Sinha.
Sahani replaces Choudhary as the leader of the opposition in the Upper House, who appears to have been divested of the cabinet minister rank in line with the BJP’s stated policy of “one person one post”.
A former district unit chief of Darbhanga, Sahani was elected to the legislative council last year in a development that was viewed as an attempt by the BJP to offset resentment among the Nishad community in the wake of unceremonious sacking from the cabinet of Bollywood set designer-turned- politician Mukesh Sahani.
Mukesh Sahani, who heads Vikassheel Insaan Party, was brought into the NDA in the thick of the 2020 assembly polls, after a meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Hari Sahani’s elevation, which comes less than six months after Choudhary was made the state BJP president, marks yet another aggressive bid by the party to win over OBCs in a state, where it faces a stiff challenge from the ‘Mahagathbandhan’ that includes both Nitish Kumar and RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, two of the most powerful leaders to have emerged from the Mandal churn.
The BJP was stripped of power in Bihar last year when Kumar dumped it to join the ‘Mahagathbandhan’, which also includes Congress and the Left.