BJP’s national working president Nitin Nabin, who arrived for his first visit to his home state Bihar after assuming the charge last week, led a roadshow in Patna on Tuesday.
Several state BJP leaders welcomed him at the Jay Prakash Narayan International Airport.
The roadshow began from Aranya Bhawan near the Patna airport and will culminate at Miller High School ground near the state BJP office on Birchand Patel Marg. Accompanied by Deputy Chief Ministers Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha and Bihar BJP chief Sanjay Saraogi, Nabin stood atop a vehicle bedecked with flowers and cutouts of the lotus, the party's poll symbol.
All of them were seen waving at the thousands of people who gathered on two sides of the road. People showered flower petals on Nabin’s cavalcade and raised slogans of 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai'. Posters and hoardings were put up, and several stages erected for cultural programmes along the route from the airport to the Miller High School ground, a party leader said. Security has been tightened across Patna in view of the BJP's programme.
"The roadshow will pass through Sheikhpura More, the Hanuman temple in Rajbanshi Nagar, and the income tax roundabout and culminate at Miller High School ground," Bihar BJP spokesperson Niraj Kumar told PTI.
Nabin, the fifth-term MLA from Bankipur assembly seat, was the state unit chief of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha and the party's in-charge for Chhattisgarh. He was appointed as the BJP's national working president on December 14. "Several stages along the roadshow route have been set up, and cultural programmes have been planned to welcome our leader," he said. Nabin is expected to address party workers at the Miller High School ground, the state BJP spokesperson said.
According to party insiders, Nabin is likely to meet Bihar Governor Arif Mohammad Khan at Raj Bhavan in the evening. After that, he will interact with party MPs, MLAs, members of the legislative council, and other leaders at the BJP's state headquarters, they said.
Nabin, the son of Navin Kishore Sinha, a veteran BJP leader who had represented the now-abolished Patna West assembly constituency, began his political career in 2006 with a victory in a by-election. The bypoll was necessitated by the demise of his father. Known to be popular among voters of Bankipur, an urban assembly segment in the state capital, Nabin had retained the seat in the recently held state assembly polls by a margin of about 52,000 votes.