Scaling up its preparations for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, the ruling BJP is set to induct a number of leaders from across the political spectrum, especially from the Congress.

While the party’s strengthening is going to be the main objective behind these new inductions, the BJP would also want a weakening of the Opposition while choosing the leaders for their entry into its fold, sources said.

“The BJP has been welcoming new inductees to strengthen the party in the areas where it is electorally and ideologically weak. In the run-up to the elections, such joining programmes would add to the entire poll atmosphere. But this time, the main target would be the Congress and the exit of key influential leaders will weaken that party in a particular area,” said a BJP leader.

The BJP leadership has already constituted a high-level panel, called the joining committee, comprising Union Minister Bhupinder Singh Yadav, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, national party general secretary Vinod Tawde and general secretary (organisation) B L Santhosh for the purpose. It would screen and decide potential candidates for induction.

With Congress leader Rahul Gandhi — who has been pitching himself as the principal critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his policies — emerging as a key Opposition face against Modi, the BJP’s strategy has also been to undermine Rahul politically and weaken his clout in his party. In recent years the BJP has already inducted a number of young leaders from Rahul’s team and rewarded them with prominent positions. They include Jyotiraditya Scindia, who is now Union Minister of Civil Aviation, Jitin Prasada, Public Works Minister in the Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government, and ex-Union minister R P N Singh, who is awaiting a position in the BJP.

Although there were some attempts from the BJP to rope in Sachin Pilot and Milind Deora too, things did not work out, even though Deora eventually switched to the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, an ally of the BJP in Maharashtra, last Sunday. The Congress leadership managed to retain Pilot, elevating him to the position of an AICC (All India Congress Committee) general secretary.

“Any exit from the Congress would now show poorly on Rahul Gandhi… It will add more spice to the optics over his failures,” said a BJP leader.

In its exercise, the BJP has also deployed a slew of its existing prominent inductees which include several current CMs – Himanta Biswa Sarma (Assam), N Biren Singh (Manipur) and Pema Khandu (Arunachal Pradesh) – and former CMs – including Narayan Rane (Maharashtra), Capt Amarinder Singh (Punjab), Vijay Bahuguna (Uttarakhand), S M Krishna (Karnataka) and Digambar Kamat (Goa).

Also, at a time when the BJP has been trying to woo Christians in Kerala to expand its support base, the party has inducted some prominent faces from the community including K J Alphons (who became a Union minister), Tom Vadakkan, and Anil Antony, son of Congress veteran and ex-defence minister A K Antony.

BJP sources said its leaders have been in touch with several potential inductees in the Congress camp, a few of them considered close to Gandhis, in Haryana, Maharashtra, Punjab and Rajasthan. “Some will be joining the BJP this month itself and some more close to the elections,” said a BJP leader.

“As of now, there is no particular criteria for taking leaders from any Opposition parties. But one has to bring in some followers – and his or her exit should make an optics in favour of the BJP while weakening his erstwhile organisation,” said the leader.

He cited the example of a last year’s BJP inductee N Kiran Kumar Reddy, former CM of undivided Andhra Pradesh, who, he said, did not have a major clout in the state but could encourage others from the Reddy community to follow his footsteps.