Bihar polls: BJP’s prolific performance involved months of planning at every level

As the party is poised to win over 91 seats out of the 101 it contested, bettering their 2010 tally, Pathak said they approached the polls with the intent to strengthen its independent base in a state where it has long been dependent on regional allies. Putting into perspective, the party had won 91 seats (89%) out of 102 it contested in 2010.

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) under Nitish Kumar had won 202 seats in 2010 assembly polls.

“The preparations started 18 months before the poll with leaders assigned different tasks. The growth of a political party in a particular arena is dependent on many factors, the foremost being ideology and its acceptance. Equally important are its political actions, negotiations with communities, social and communitarian alliances, and organisational strength, which is forged by committed workers and charismatic leadership,” said Pathak.

“This time Union home minister Amit Shah had himself taken the command and had ensured that grass level organisation was strengthened. PM Modi, Amit Shah, JP Nadda led from the front. They camped here, addressed rallies. Amit Shah handled the micro management, every constituency was considered as a separate entity and strategies were drawn accordingly. All these plans were implemented by Dharmendra Pradhan and Vinod Tawde to perfection,” said Devesh Kumar, MLC and party’s Mizoram in-charge.

“He was so methodical that he sorted shortcomings and solved any internal dissension, so much so that there was hardly any dissent in the party after the ticket distribution,” he added.

“We all fought unitedly. The voters have given their blessings to vikas ki rajneeti (Politics of development). The NDA won three seats in Muslim dominated areas,” said BJP leader Vinod Tawde.

People across all sections in the state resonated with PM Modi’s outreach.

“He also visited the party office that enthused party workers,” said Pathak.

“The BJP took to the voters programmes and policies run by the government, both Centre and the state, gave emphasis on the booth management and worked on weak booths, strengthened booth committees,” added Pathak.

After taking over as Bihar’s election in-charge, Dharmendra Pradhan also started a door-to-door campaign which helped people connect with the party.

The party increased its vote share to 20.81% from 19.46% it got in 2020 polls.

Political analysts underscored the importance of PM Modi’s rigorous campaigning in the state where he held several rallies.

“The Modi factor did the trick. The Modi factor penetrated deep inside villages, the jungle raj narrative aroused a sense of fear,” said NK Chowdhary, retired professor and psephologist.

The victory has reaffirmed the BJP’s ability to win in a complex state without depending excessively on caste arithmetic.

“The narrative of stable governance and incremental development through infrastructure and social engineering has had enough traction and we are seeing it on the ground,” said Prof Gyanendra Yadav, College of Commerce, Patna.

“This BJP victory means several things for the state and national politics. With a stronger mandate, the BJP will have more say and leverage in the Bihar government, potentially increasing its control within the administration. A strong showing in Hindi heartland states like Bihar is a significant confidence booster for the BJP nationally, especially following a mixed performance in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections,” said Yadav.

“BJP has opened a way to come into power through this win. If JD(U) bags less number of seats than BJP, it may put a toss to change the CM”, a senior NDA leader said.