Patna, Sep 11 (IANS): With elections round the corner, political parties are working hard to streamline their social engineering to win the Assembly polls.

While the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is following the social engineering ideology of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya where even the person in the last line of society also gets the benefits, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has changed its social engineering narrative after the BJP registered a victory in the 2014 and 2019 Parliamentary elections.

BJP spokesperson Ram Sagar Singh said, "In 12 states the party is in power alone while in six it is in alliance with other parties. People have voted for us as we have tried to serve every single person which has been the ideology of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya. If we continue to do this, people will continue to vote for us."

"Schemes like Antyodaya Yojana, Ujjawal Yojana, Housing for All by 2022, electrification of villages along with various road projects have already been implemented by the Central government. The policies of the Central government have been effectively implemented in Bihar as there is better coordination between the two governments. Our social engineering has also helped us in implementing the schemes at the ground level in the state," he said.

Talking about the river linking project, Singh said it requires huge resources and money. "Before 2014, the Congress government at the Centre was not supportive as NDA was in power in Bihar. Now, since NDA is in power at the Centre as well as the state, the work on the river-linking project, which would connect rivers like the Kosi, Gandak, Ganga, Bhudhi, and many others, has picked up," he said.

The river-linking project holds great significance for the state as around 20 districts witness floods every year and farming is not possible there for almost six to eight months. This is one of the major reasons behind migration from the state.

While talking about social engineering of the RJD, the party's general secretary and spokesperson Chitranjan Gagan said, "For us, social engineering means representation of all the castes and communities in the party. Leaders from the upper caste like Manoj Jha (a Brahmin) and A D Singh (a Rajput) represent the party in the Rajya Sabha while Sunil Kumar Singh (a Rajput) has been sent to the Legislative Council in Bihar. Leaders like Shivanand Tiwari (a Brahmin) and Raghuvansh Prasad Singh (a Rajput) have been with the party for the last over 30 years."

"A similar pattern is been adopted at the village and block level. This was one of the reasons the RJD emerged as the single largest party in Bihar in the 2015 elections despite contesting on only 100 seats," he added.

He said that the opposition is running a false propaganda that the RJD is run by a family and is a party which favours only one or two castes.

Talking about the JDU's social engineering, Information and Public Relations Minister in the Bihar government Neeraj Kumar said, "The JDU doesn't believes in caste based politics. For us, social engineering is implementing the public welfare schemes across the state. We have worked in such a way that the benefits reach all. We don't differentiate between castes and polarise votes. Social justice is the best social engineering model for the JDU."