The BJP’s Bihar headquarters on Patna’s Birchand Patel Path, the capital’s political hub lined with offices of all major parties, hums with frenetic energy.
A few hundred yards away, ally Janata Dal United’s premises wear a desultory look that belies the party’s position as the leader of the ruling coalition.
Amardeep, an official with the JDU’s media department, tries to explain away the subdued atmosphere.
“The BJP is a national party while we are a regional one. Their chief ministers, central ministers and senior leaders are all coming here to campaign. That’s why their office is bustling,” he says.
Seated in a small backroom, he gestures towards the largely empty lawns where a few workers loiter idly. Most other rooms are locked.
“All our leaders are out in the field campaigning,” Santosh Kumar, another JDU functionary, makes a brave attempt to gloss over the inertia.
All this feeds the ever-deepening impression that the BJP, which has unleashed a formidable army of leaders and cadres across Bihar that neither its allies nor opponents can match, is bent on tightening its grip over a state it has never ruled on its own.
While Union home minister Amit Shah has walked back on his earlier hint that the BJP could claim the chief minister’s post if the NDA returns to power, the party’s ground mobilisation signals a clear ambition for dominance within the alliance.
With Prime Minister Narendra Modi spearheading the campaign, the BJP has deployed a battery of chief ministers, Union ministers, strategists and grassroots workers from across India, all driven by a single command from the leadership: “ Bihar (We must win Bihar).”
Shah had initially said that while the NDA was contesting under the leadership of chief minister Nitish Kumar, the post-election decision on leadership would be left to the newly elected MLAs. He later attempted damage control by saying there was “no vacancy” for the chief minister’s post with Nitish entrenched there.
Although the BJP is known for pulling out the stops in every election, party insiders acknowledge that the scale of the Bihar campaign eclipses those of previous state elections, and is matched only by Maharashtra 2024.
“Although Bihar is a smaller state, the deployment of leaders and cadres here equals what we had in Maharashtra,” a BJP leader from Haryana, stationed in Patna, said.
“The official list of star campaigners may have 40 names, but many more leaders have been assigned specific tasks.”
A dozen helicopters ferry senior BJP leaders daily from Patna to rally venues across Bihar. In comparison, the JDU has requisitioned just two choppers.
“We have only one star campaigner, Nitish Kumar. One of the helicopters is for him, and the other has been kept on stand-by,” a JDU manager conceded, tacitly admitting the party’s limited resources, especially in comparison with its main ally’s.
While the BJP has built its national campaigns around Hindutva, the strategy for Bihar has been tailored to make room for the state’s caste complexities.
Madhya Pradesh chief minister Mohan Yadav is courting the RJD’s Yadav constituency; Delhi chief minister Rekha Gupta is targeting the Baniya (trader) community; and Haryana’s Nayab Singh Saini is trying to consolidate non-Yadav OBC votes.
Union education minister and Shah confidant Dharmendra Pradhan has been camping in Patna for over a week, overseeing constituency-level caste calculations and micro-strategies.
As the party’s principal election minder for Bihar, Pradhan is closely tracking each of the 101 constituencies that the BJP is contesting, making quick tactical adjustments as the campaign progresses.
Party insiders say the goal is clear – to emerge as the largest party, within not just the NDA but the entire Assembly. The BJP won 74 seats in 2020, comfortably the highest in the NDA and just one seat short of the RJD’s 75.
“If we win more seats than the JDU, our claim to the chief minister’s post becomes legitimate,” a senior BJP manager said. “It will then be forthe leadership to decide whether to re-anoint Nitish Kumar or assert our own claim to the top job.”