Patna, Sept. 29: BJP president Amit Shah today reached here for a prolonged stay following uproar over distribution of tickets and growing rebellion among leaders.

He has already made attempts to douse the fire over ticket distribution. After talks with party leaders, he came out with a message: Don't ignore the rebels; try to pacify them.

The BJP is already facing rebellion within the party from the likes of former Union home secretary and Ara MP R.K. Singh, six-time MLA from Chanpatia, Chandra Mohan Rai, and others. Sources said Shah's damage control mission is all the more important as Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address his first election campaign rally in Banka on October 2. Sources said for cooling the tempers of rebels, the BJP has deputed a central team.

Shah will camp in the state till the election process is over. Shah's Bihar mission gets importance as today Arun Singh, the national general secretary and headquarters in-charge, issued a notice stating that Shah would not be available for Jan Samvad at the party headquarters in October and November.

On every Monday, Shah holds Jan Samvad at the headquarters. But as per the BJP's notice, Shah will not hold the session on October 5, October 19 and November 2.

As part of the BJP president's programme, Shah will conduct workers' meet at Begusarai, Aurangabad, Muzaffarpur, Supaul, Kishanganj, Katihar, Purnea and Patna ahead of the Assembly elections. The workers' meet will begin in Begusarai on September 30. Shah will also hold a workers' meet in Patna on October 3.

Shah today held marathon meetings at a city hotel. In the first session, the sources said, around 20 leaders, including BJP organisational secretary Ram Lal, state BJP president Mangal Pandey, Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Kalraj Mishra, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, Manoj Sinha and BJP MP R.K. Sinha, were invited.

Sources said Union ministers and BJP leaders from other states have been invited for the meeting taking into account the caste they belong to. While Manoj Sinha is a Uttar Pradesh Bhumihar, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti belongs to the Nishad community in UP.

Apart from discussing resentment of rebels within the party, Shah also discussed how to tackle the Grand Alliance's Mandal politics. Both Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar have been playing the Mandal card accusing the BJP of its plan of tampering with the reservation issue.

Echoing Giriraj Singh, Mangal today said: "Feedback from the ground shows that any leader from backward, extremely backward class leader will be the chief ministerial candidate from the BJP."