PATNA: BJP roped in Bhojpuri singer Pawan Singh on Tuesday in order to fix the loose ends before the assembly elections due in Nov and realise the target set by Union home minister Amit Shah to win 80% of the 48 seats in Shahabad and Magadh regions.Shahabad region has 22 assembly seats. Shah, during his recent visit to Bihar, had asked the BJP leaders of his 20 organisational districts in Shahabad and Magadh to win 80% of the seats this time. NDA had fared badly in the two regions in the 2020 assembly polls.Pawan, back in the saffron camp, met Shah and BJP national president J P Nadda after Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM) chief and NDA partner Upendra Kuhswaha, who had lost the election from Karakat Lok Sabha seat in 2024 largely due to the Bhojpuri singer, who contested as an independent after refusing to be a BJP candidate from Asansol against Bollywood star of yesteryears and TMC’s Shatrughan Sinha. In fact, Pawan’s candidature was interpreted as one of the reasons behind the NDA’s loss in all the four LS seats in Shahabad region.Pawan had garnered 2.74 lakh votes against Kushwaha’s 1.71 lakh, and paved the way for the victory of Raja Ram Singh of CPI(ML), who got 3.80 lakh votes.How Pawan is important for the BJP scheme of things amid dissension in the NDA ranks and file on caste lines in Shahabad was evident from the fact that BJP’s Bihar in charge Vinod Tawde and national minister Rituraj Sinha took him to Kushwaha’s residence in Delhi to take him into confidence and soothe his ruffled feathers. “Kushwaha ji blessed Pawan, who is in BJP and will actively work for the party (in elections),” Tawde said.When asked, Pawan also said he had never separated from BJP.Pawan can play an important role in countering another Bhojpuri singer, Ritesh Pandey of his region. Ritesh recently joined Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj, which is already targeting the BJP and JD(U) ministers over alleged corruption issues.The NDA had won only six seats in the Shahabad region in 2015 when CM Nitish Kumar was with the RJD and Congress. But BJP made a strong comeback in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in the Magadh-Shahabad range and won Pataliputra, Aurangabad, Nawada, Gaya, Jehanabad, Ara, Sasaram, Buxar, and Karakat. But, the tables turned in the 2020 assembly polls in favour of the Grand Alliance, which won most of the seats falling in those Lok Sabha constituencies.