Dharmendra Pradhan, The Silent Architect Of BJP's Haryana Victory

The architect of the BJP's historic third victory in Haryana, Dharmendra Pradhan, is anything but flamboyant. A silent worker who stays in the background, he also is one of the closet aides of the party's chief strategist Amit Shah.

The Odisha leader, who once handled the crucial petroleum ministry and is now in charge of education, has emerged over the years as the BJP's go-to person for difficult states and tough electoral battles. Which is how, before Haryana, he was assigned the elections in Uttarakhand in 2017, Uttar Pradesh in 2022. His long-term project was home state Odisha, which the BJP won this year .

He was also the person who was given a single assignment in the 2021 battle for West Bengal -- handle Nandigram, the constituency from where Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had lost, despite the party's sweeping victory across the state.

Sources in the BJP said for these reasons, he was the obvious man for the job in Haryana, a state where the party was battling anti-incumbency and multiple disgruntled sections -- Jats, farmers, army aspirants unhappy with the Agniveer scheme, party workers shaken by the high-pitched Congress campaign and ultimately, rebels within the BJP unhappy with ticket distribution.

Mr Pradhan's battle plan, sources said, started with hunkering down at the spot. For over a month, he did not budge from the state, setting up camps at Rohtak, Kurukshetra and Panchkula.

He kept an ear to the ground --- listening to party workers and leaders and liaising on their behalf with the Central leadership. He enthused workers, demystified the Congress campaign and helped with the candidate selection.

"He would go to ground zero and hold small meetings... he would take real time feedback from the workers and inform the leadership and rectify the shortcomings immediately. He also pacified the angry people in Haryana, identified the weak booths and adopted strong workers from other parties," a BJP leader said.  

He even defused the tension that cropped up after the candidates' list was drawn up. From around 25 rebels, the party had to deal with only three by the time the nomination withdrawal rolled around, BJP sources said. 

"After the announcement of the names of BJP candidates, there came a time when it seemed that the rebel candidates of BJP would spoil the game. More than two dozen rebel leaders were bent on contesting elections. But it was the success of Mr Pradhan and his team that as the date of withdrawal of nomination papers came near, only three rebels were left," a BJP leader said on condition of anonymity.

His efforts paid off handsomely. The BJP has now won its third straight term in Haryana, emerging victorious in 48 of the state's 90 assembly seats. The Congress has won 37 seats.

The BJP has done well in Jammu too, winning 29 of the 90 seats in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.