Prime Minister Narendra Modi, flanked by NDA partners, on Wednesday paid tributes to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on his death anniversary and in the evening took part in a long meeting of the BJP’s poll body, reflecting a sense of urgency that has gripped the ruling party post the formation of the Opposition INDIA coalition.

Despite exuding confidence about returning to power for a third straight term and slamming the Opposition for being no match for him, Modi has been seen on an overdrive since the Opposition’s Bangalore unity meet. He has been reaching out to allies, tightening the party ranks and aggressively projecting himself as the only alternative before the country.

Inviting NDA partners to pay tributes to Vajpayee on his death anniversary on Wednesday was a first-of-its-kind effort and third such instance of the BJP giving importance to allies. “This is the first time NDA ally leaders were invited to Vajpayee’s death anniversary,” a BJP leader said.

Vajpayee, who passed away in 2018, was credited with forming the NDA led by the BJP and the current leadership sought to use the occasion to send out a message to the allies.

The drive to consolidate the allies, however, had started immediately after the success of the Opposition’s unity meet in Bangalore where the new name of the alliance (INDIA) was finalised. Coinciding with that meeting last month, Modi had hurriedly chaired a meeting with NDA leaders in Delhi, where he was seen going out of the way to please the allies.

Thereafter, Modi held sessions with BJP and the NDA MPs in batches during the monsoon session of Parliament to lecture them on how to woo voters. All this stood in sharp contrast to the past record of the BJP sidestepping allies and not taking them into confidence on key decisions.

The meeting of the BJP’s central election committee in which the Prime Minister participated on Wednesday evening also indicated a sense of unease in the party. The meeting was to discuss and decide on potential candidates for the Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh Assembly polls, still over three months away. Party leaders said that never before had the election body met to decide candidates so much in advance.

“Usually the election committee meeting is held after the announcement of polls and closer to voting,” a BJP leader said. “It seems the leadership wants to discuss the winning chances of each candidate before finalising the names,” the leader added.

The BJP has been in power in Madhya Pradesh since 2003 with a small break from 2018 to 2020 when the Congress seized power but couldn’t retain it because of large-scale defections. The ground feedback from the state is that it will be an uphill task for the BJP to counter accumulated anti-incumbency. Similarly, in Congress-ruled Chhattisgarh, party leaders are not very optimistic.

Apart from these two states, Rajasthan — currently ruled by the Congress — and Telangana also are due for polls later this year. “The poll results of these states will set the tone for the Lok Sabha polls next year and so the party leadership is not taking any chances,” a BJP leader said.

“All units of the party, MPs, ministers, chief ministers and ministers in the state have been directed to hurl themselves into preparing for the polls,” another BJP leader said.