Bhikhubhai Dalsaniya works silently to strengthen BJP in Bihar
The BJP Bihar unit, outsmarted by Nitish Kumar in August 2022, is working to strengthen its organisation in pockets that had weakened, primarily attributed to alliance compulsions.
The BJP, with the objective to stay in power in Bihar as long as possible, had allowed itself to be relegated to the role of a junior partner in the alliance for a major part of the last two decades.
All the major appointments and government decisions were solely being taken by Kumar, mostly without consulting the BJP members. In districts that were considered to be JDU’S stronghold, the BJP had reduced its efforts when it came to organisational activities so as not to upset the JDU leadership.
Now, with the party leadership making it clear that the BJP will never enter into an alliance with the JDU again, things have started changing on the ground with key functionaries who have been entrusted with the job to invigorate, working silently.
Among those is Bhikubhai Dalsaniya, who was sent to Bihar as General Secretary in charge of Organization in August 2021 when the BJP was still in an alliance with the Janata Dal (United).
Since then, the Jamnagar, Gujarat-born Dalsaniya has been
working on instilling measures among the cadre, which he hopes will pay dividends in May 2024 when the BJP will be contesting the election as the leader of what is going to be a new alliance. Dalsaniya, who belongs to the Kadwa Patidar community which is classified as a ‘Kurmi’ by caste, is described as one of the closest aides of Home Minister Amit Shah. Before being sent to the challenging state of Bihar, Dalsaniya was working in Gujarat in the same role for the party for almost one and a half decades. His name has been in contention for the post of Gujarat CM multiple times in the last few years, which shows the confidence that Shah has in him.
After replacing Nagendra Nath Tripathi, who was elevated to the post of General Secretary, Organization (Biharjharkhand), Dalsaniya has introduced multiple measures of austerity in Bihar to stop the misuse of the party’s funds and ensured that the money is spent for the purpose for which it was given.
According to state functionaries, he knows and recalls almost all the active party cadres by their names and meets them frequently to get feedback from the ground rather than stay ‘aloof ’, a quality that party leaders say has been found with other leaders.
“He will meet you a couple of times, develop his own independent feedback, and decide which works suit you best. The good thing is that those workers who really work on the ground are recognized for their efforts by him; this is a very rare trait these days,” a Patna-based oldtime party functionary told the Sunday Guardian. Called a hard taskmaster, Dalsaniya has acted strictly on matters of conduct of the party’s workers and has been pushing to stop the culture of ‘showing-off’ and seeking ‘recognition’ that has become prevalent in Bihar BJP.
“Earlier, for any political events, there would be multiple seats on the stage so as to ensure that all the top leaders get the opportunity to sit and no one gets upset. Now, he is trying to ensure that only three chairs are put up so that time and resources are not wasted just to massage the ego of leaders. He himself stays away from sharing the stage and limelight,” another senior functionary stated.
According to him, the party’s organisation in the state is now working smoothly, and many of the pre-existing issues in the field of coordination among different leaders and implementation of the party’s schemes have been mostly sorted by Dalsaniya.
“He has got a free hand because Shah knows his working style and is aware that he will get things done without making noise. This freedom has helped him in solving many problems that were created by ‘big’ leaders,” the functionary quoted above said.