Sheer numbers

While the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Rajnath Singh is struggling to nominate the party office-bearers - vice-presidents, general secretaries and secretaries - given the constant push and pull by the party senior leaders who want their candidates to find place, other allies of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) do not face similar troubles. When one of the senior leaders of the party was asked about the delay in announcing the names of the BJP's office-bearers, he said, "I was discussing the issue with NDA convenor Sharad Yadav. He told me that there were 81 general secretaries of the Janata Dal (United) in Bihar alone. He also said people with political ambitions should be made general secretaries, so that they get a post, and they don't work against the party... But we cannot say this about the BJP because we struggle to fill just a handful of posts." Interestingly, Lalu Prasad's Rashtriya Janata Dal has 105 general secretaries in Bihar alone.