There is talk that rebel RJD MP from Madhepura, Rajiv Ranjan, better known as Pappu Yadav, would join the NDA ahead of Assembly elections. Moreover, Pappu has expressed his desire to join the NDA many times. Is the NDA going to welcome Pappu, who has a good support base in Madhepura and Supaul regions?

Till now, neither has Pappu Yadav approached us with his desire to join the NDA, nor has the BJP leadership any plan to induct him in the NDA. We too have heard about Pappu joining the NDA. At this moment all I can say is this news has no basis.

Your appointment as the state BJP in-charge is seen as an attempt by your party to make inroads into the Yadav vote base. The party has been projecting you as the Yadav face though you are from outside Bihar.

First of all, I am a dedicated BJP worker and whatever responsibility the party gives me, I will do it sincerely. My appointment as the state BJP in-charge should not be seen as an attempt by the party to project me as its Yadav face. As the party has given me a responsibility I will sincerely do it. As far as projecting me as the Yadav face is concerned, there are many leaders in the state BJP from the Yadav community. State BJP senior leader Nand Kishore Yadav, who is also the Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, has been a party MLA for over two decades besides Pataliputra MP Ram Kripal Yadav and Ujiarpur MP Nityanand Rai. Our party doesn't believe in caste politics but at the same time, we believe in development and growth of all communities.

At a time when chief minister Nitish Kumar has been projected as the chief ministerial candidate by the JDU, RJD and Congress alliance and even Lalu has accepted Nitish as his leader, what is stopping you from projecting a chief ministerial face ahead of the Assembly elections?

The BJP has different strategies for different elections. Not projecting any chief ministerial face in Bihar is the party's well-thought out strategy. There are many states where the party didn't project any chief ministerial candidate and yet, we won handsomely. In Jharkhand, Haryana and Maharashtra, we didn't project any chief ministerial face but when the results were declared, they were in our favour. In Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, we projected popular faces, who were either incumbent chief ministers or former chief ministers of the states concerned.

JDU and Nitish Kumar have beaten your party in the poll campaign and advertisements, as that party launched its campaign much ahead of you. How is your party going to tackle these?

Do you think that just putting up banners or posters in the city can start the JDU election campaign. The BJP started its campaign much ahead of the JDU. Its membership drive, which they call Har Ghar Dastak, started this month. But our party started its membership drive in November last year and in four months, the party has enrolled over 75 lakh members. As part of Har Ghar Dastak, Nitish is visiting homes to enrol new members but I am asking you whether he has even visited his closest neighbour, Lalu Prasad, as part of the drive. The JDU's Parcha par Charcha programme is a big failure. You will not find any JDU worker doing Parcha par Charcha. We launched our election campaign on April 14. Our Karyakarta Samagam (workers' meet) at Gandhi Maidan was our first election campaign.

There are many leaders from your party who directly or indirectly have been projecting themselves as the chief ministerial candidate. Even BJP Rajya Sabha MP C.P. Thakur has on several occasions expressed his desire to lead the party if given the responsibility. Who will be your chief ministerial candidate?

This is the beauty of our party that workers from the bottom to top leaders can express their desire and expectations to reach the top. But the final call is taken unanimously. In the case of Bihar, the party's highest body, the parliamentary board, would decide who the chief minister of the state would be. The parliamentary board, which has members like BJP national president Amit Shah, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and others, would take the decision. Even the state leadership and party MLAs would have their say in deciding their chief minister.

With former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi's party Hindustani Awam Morcha Secular joining the NDA, the umbrella, which already had the LJP and the RLSP, has become bigger. Don't you think that there would be difficulties in seat-sharing, as allies within the NDA camp are becoming bigger?

At this moment, all I can tell you is that there would be no problems during seat-sharing talks with our allies. The biggest goal before our party and the NDA is to form an NDA government in the state.

If there is no difference among NDA partners, then why has RLSP president Upendra Kushwaha given a formula for seat-sharing, asking the BJP to contest around 103 seats, LJP 75 and RLSP 65 seats.

It is the RLSP's thought. Neither any RLSP leader nor Upendra Kushwaha approached us with the seat-sharing formula you are talking about. Kushwaha is a senior leader of the RLSP and he has been doing good work in his ministry. As far as the seat-sharing formula is concerned, it would be sorted out by our state as well as the central leadership. There would be no problem.

Your party has very few leaders from the minorities and these too are seen as having a cosmetic presence. What is your party doing to woo the minorities, especially the Muslims?

Our party believes in Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas. For our party, development of all communities is important, as we believe that the country can become prosperous if only there is development and growth of all communities.

Who is the BJP's enemy number one - Nitish or Lalu?

People of Bihar have seen 15 years of the Lalu-Rabri rule and three years of the Nitish Kumar government (after the break-up with BJP). These two leaders have not done anything for the state's growth and development. Nitish became chief minister by criticising Lalu and now he is in Nitish's lap again. For our party, neither Nitish nor Lalu is enemy number one but they are the biggest enemy of the people of the state, as development came to a standstill in their regimes.

If you were not a politician, what would you have been?

I am a Supreme Court lawyer and were I not a leader, I would have been practising there.