BJP looking far from jittery despite discontented allies
The Telugu Desam Party is fuming. The Shiv Sena has long been a thorn in the flesh. The PDP in Kashmir is often at loggerheads, and Akalis too are sulking. Such open show of discontent by allies should have rung loud alarm bells in the BJP, but the ruling party is far from looking jittery.
Many BJP leaders who spoke to PTI on condition of anonymity are of the belief that some of its trusted allies have become sullen because the BJP has grown from strength to strength across the nation, often at the cost of its partners like Shiv Sena in Maharashtra.
But the BJP is also secure in the knowledge that most of its allies are unlikely to quit the ruling National Democratic Alliance despite their tantrums. Even TDP, the most disgruntled of the bunch, went only so far.
While TDP president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu announced the withdrawal of his two ministers from the central government, the party did not sever ties with the NDA. It was a separation, not a divorce, as some called it.
Political observers, however, caution the BJP against complacency. Manindra Nath Thakur, an associate professor at Centre for Political Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, told PTI that the discontentment of allies may not look serious now, but the BJP needs to develop a better mechanism to deal with the allies ahead of the next Lok Sabha polls in 2019.
“I have a feeling that in 2019 the BJP will not get the kind of majority it has now, and it does not need an analyst to suggest so. BJP’s highest strength is now and they will definitely need alliances in 2019. So to make them ( allies) unhappy is not the way to go,” he said.
Shiv Sena, which long enjoyed an ideological brother status in the BJP family, has already sounded the bugle of rebellion by announcing its intention to fight the Lok Sabha elections independently.
Sanjay Raut, a party leader, said that TDP's decision _ ostensibly over the Centre's refusal to give Andhra special status _ was expected. He predicted that anger of more allies will spill out in the coming days and they will walk out of the NDA.
Earlier, when the ties between the TDP and the BJP soured, Naresh Gujaral of the Shiromani Akali Dal had advised the bigger party to not ride roughshod over its allies and to follow the ‘ coalition dharma’ practised by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who headed the first NDA government. But times have changed.
The allies do not have the free rein they had under Vajpayee when the BJP depended on their support for survival, unlike now when it enjoys a majority on its own.
A BJP leader said Naidu as the NDA convener during the Vajpayee government enjoyed a lot of clout and was in a position to dictate terms to the BJP. Now he is just another ally and the BJP under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and its chief Amit Shah would not go out of the way placate any ally, he said.