Each leader will look after six assembly constituencies.
Most of these leaders are known for their organisational skills and successful management of elections in their respective states.
Sensing a tough fight in the crucial Bihar assembly election due in November, the Bharatiya Janata Party's top leadership is relying more on the party's Pravasi Netas (BJP leaders from other states) instead of its local leaders.
Although the BJP will seek votes in the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who remains popular, the party has decided to deploy a team of 45 leaders -- Union ministers, MPs, MLAs, and senior leaders from 12 states -- for the election campaign and to guide, supervise, and monitor local leaders and workers.
The BJP-led National Democratic Party comprises Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal-United, the Lok Janshakti Party-Ramvilas led by Union Minister Chirag Paswan, the Hindustani Awam Morcha led by Union Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi and the Rashtriya Lok Morcha led by former Union minister Upender Kushwaha.
The BJP, which is currently the single largest party in the Bihar assembly, and its major ally the JD-U, which is in third position after the Opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal, are both eyeing the role of 'big brother' after the poll outcome.
With this in mind, the BJP aims to win more seats than in the 2020 polls.
Amit Shah, regarded as the most powerful BJP leader after Modi, is the brains behind the deployment of party leaders from the BJP-ruled states of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Maharashtra and Odisha as well as a few leaders from Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir.
On Friday, Shah addressed a meeting with these leaders at the Atal Sabhagar at the state BJP headquarters in Patna to prepare for 'Mission Bihar Victory'.
The meeting was attended by BJP national General Secretary (Organisation) B L Santosh, BJP Bihar election in-charge Dharmendra Pradhan, state party in-charge Vinod Tawde and several senior party leaders from Bihar.
Union Minister Pradhan, who is from Odisha, is known for his successful organisational work and for managing elections as the party's in-charge in various states, including Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka (assembly elections) and Bihar in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
Pradhan will be assisted by Union Jal Shakti Minister C R Patil, who is from Gujarat, and Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya.
Shah made it clear to the 45 party leaders from different states that the result of the Bihar election would send a message to the rest of the country.
'All of you have to work as common party workers and establish coordination with leaders and workers of the various NDA allies,' Shah told the leaders, confided a BJP leader who attended the meeting.
Shah, the BJP leader added, urged the leaders to set aside all other work and dedicate themselves to the organisation until the Bihar election.
'In his signature style, Shah told them that they must all remember that they have to treat all candidates as NDA candidates. Our target is for the NDA to win the election. It is not important which party's candidate is contesting from where', the BJP leader revealed.
"This is a significant move by our party leadership to give them responsibility for different districts and assembly constituencies to connect with people and to activate local party leaders, workers and supporters during the election in the state," said state BJP president Dileep Jaiswal.
Each leader will look after six assembly constituencies. There are 243 assembly seats in the state.
Most of these leaders from states outside Bihar are known for their organisational skills and successful management of elections in their respective states.
Prominent among them are Santosh Pandey and Vijay Baghel, BJP MPs from Chhattisgarh, and BJP national vice-president Saroj Pandey, Kamaljeet Sehrawat, BJP MP from West Delhi, Union Minister Harsh Malhotra, a BJP MP from Delhi, and Ramesh Bidhuri, the controversial former MP from Delhi.
Another Union Minister Prahlad Patel is from Madhya Pradesh as is B D Sharma, a former state BJP president.
BJP leaders from Uttar Pradesh include MPs Satish Gautam, Sangam Lal Gupta, Rajkumar Chahar, former MP Vinod Sonkar and party MLA Salabh Mani Tripathi.
BJP MPs Devusinh Chauhan, Mitesh Patel and MLA Amit Thakre from Gujarat, Rajendra Rathore from Rajasthan, former MP Sunita Duggal from Haryana, MP Jugal Kishore Sharma from Jammu and Kashmir, MPs Manish Jaiswal and Kalicharan Singh from Jharkhand, and MP Anant Nayak from Odisha.
According to party sources, all these leaders have been directed to camp for 45 to 50 days in the assembly constituencies assigned to them for election work.
Modi and Shah, along with BJP President J P Nadda, are set to visit Bihar in October.
Modi and Shah along with over two dozen others will address dozens of rallies in different parts of Bihar during October and November.
According to sources in the NDA camp, seat-sharing has almost been finalised. The JD-U will contest 102 of 243 seats, the BJP will contest 101 seats. The remaining 40 seats will be contested by the LJP-R, HAM and RLM. A JD-U source said, "The formal announcement will be made soon."
JD-U leaders said the party wants to emerge as the single largest party after the poll to play 'big brother' in the ruling NDA. "The JD-U is not ready to take the political risk of playing second fiddle to the BJP in state politics."
The NDA has yet to name Nitish Kumar as its chief ministerial candidate. It is a different matter that the JD-U has asserted time and again that it will not compromise on Nitish Kumar as the next chief minister.
In the last assembly polls in 2020, Nitish Kumar's JD-U contested 115 seats and won 43 while the BJP contested 110 seats and won 74.
Feature Presentation: Rajesh Alva/Rediff
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