INSIDE NDA WAR ROOM

HOW THE BJP'S AMIT SHAH AND CO. SET RIGHT A FRACTIOUS ALLIANCE AND TURNED THE TABLES ON THE WELL SET MAHAGATHBANDHAN

- By AMITABH SRIVASTAVA and ANILESH S. MAHAJAN

UPBEAT Union home minister Amit Shah with BJP leaders Vinod Tawde (left) and Dharmendra Pradhan at a Vande Mataram 150th anniversary function in Patna, Nov. 7

It was past midnight, days before the second phase of polling in Bihar, and Patna was all but asleep. At Hotel Maurya, though, a heavily curtained suite on the upper floors was showing signs of hectic activity. On a bare sofa, Union home minister Amit Shah was deep in the middle of another review. No papers, no courtesies, only questions: Every meeting followed the same routine: boxes ticked, gaps identified, progress debated, and execution details for the next 24 hours fine-tuned to the last measurable action.

It was on the back of such careful micromanagement that the astonishingly successful campaign for Bihar was stitched together. The vaunted poll machinery of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) outdid itself, with the architects being the omnipresent Shah, Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan and national secretary Vinod Tawde. Pradhan was tasked with organisational consolidation and ground-team mobilisation, Tawde with messaging and social engineering.

The seat-sharing arrangements of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) had given the BJP 101 seats, the same as the Janata Dal (United), for the first time, a reflection of how the saffron party's involvement extended far beyond its own quota. Right from the start, alliance coordination was key. For the JD(U), working president Sanjay Jha, who had longstanding ties with both Tawde and Pradhan, was the go-to person. Shah’s junior minister, Nityanand Rai, who has known the Paswan family for ages, was the conduit for talks with Chirag Paswan and his Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas). Pradhan, who was made Bihar poll in-charge in September, has an easy rapport with chief minister Nitish Kumar, which proved invaluable when matters got testy during the seat-sharing talks.

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