Shah & NDA allies: Striking the right chord

Am it Shah’ s comfort level with the 47 constituents that make up the National Democratic Alliance depend on whether their partnerships with the B ha ra ti ya Jan at a Party were initiated and cemented before he became the president or after. After Shah’ s take over of the B JP in September 2014, he gotmorepro-activein searching out new friends and co-opting them. He maintains a civil but formal relationship with the parties whose existence in th eND A predated hisemergence—suchasthe Shiv Se na, Shir oman iA kali Dal, Telugu Des am, LokJ an sh ak ti Party, Rashtriya Lok Samata. And, can claim credit for bringing several entities of the northeast, old and new, into th eND A fold. Bar ring the Sikkim Democratic Front, whose leader, Pawan Ch am ling, has a personal rap port with Prime Minister Na rend ra Mo di, the newbies such as Bo do land People’ s Front, MizoPeo pl e’ s Front, Indigenous People’ s Front of Trip ur a, Ma nip ur People’ s Party, As om Ga na Paris had (A GP ), People’ s Party of Arunachal, United Democratic Party, Hill State People’ s Democratic Party and Ma nip ur Democratic People’ s Front were courted and won over by Shah. The A GP, a difficult nut to crack, regardless of its intrinsic or perceived strength, acted up before the Ass am elections. They demanded a seat share that Shah believed was disproportionate to their real worth. With the help of Hi manta Bisw aS arm a, now an ace B JP strategist who’ d defected from the Congress, he beat the AG Pleaders down to accepting what he considered was reasonable.

Indeed, S arm a and Ram Mad h av, the B JP general secretary min ding much of the northeast, are Shah’ s eyes and ears to the eight states the party had eyed for years. Similarly, inUtt ar Pradesh, shortly after Shah was appointed as its general secretary in charge in 2013, he spotted a potential in the fledgling Ap na Dal that represents the backward K ur mi caste. He sewed an alliance with the Dal before theLokSabhapoll, pandered to the demands of its leader, An upri ya Patel (now a central minister ), taking full advantage of the ca ste followingshecommanded.By the time the UP assembly election came, he sought the hand of another cast e-based entity, S uh el dev B ha ra ti ya Sam a jP ar ty, clinching a fruitful partnership. In Kerala, too, Shah has collected a few allies. Notably, the B ha ra th D harm a Jana Se na that represents the backward cast eofEzh av as and the Kerala Congress (Nationalist). However, the motley N DA spectrum in the state has along way togo.