Education minister Dharmendra Pradhan has been appointed the de facto election agent for the yet to be announced NDA candidate for the upcoming presidential polls.
Among some other organisational matters discussed at a meeting held by the BJP top brass on May 2, at party president J. P. Nadda's residence, and attended by home minister Amit Shah, defence minister Rajnath Singh, roads and highways minister Nitin Gadkari as well as senior leaders like B. L. Santhosh as well RSS joint general secretary Arun Kumar, was the question of shoring up support for the NDA presidential candidate, whoever that might be.
In fact, Mr. Pradhan's first port of call was Bihar and a hush hush meeting with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. The Janata Dal (U), which Mr. Kumar leads, is an NDA ally and while relations between the two parties are lukewarm at the moment, his support has been actively sought. Mr. Pradhan is likely to meet up leaders of parties allied with the BJP or those which are at least on friendly and neutral terms.
