SHAH IS NOT LEAVING ANYTHING TO CHANCE

Dinner Tonight for NDA Allies; On Menu: Fence-Sitters

BJP President Amit Shah on Monday rang up leaders of the National Democratic Alliance constituents and invited them over for dinner on Tuesday; on the menu are consultations on formation of the new government.

Also, the dinner is expected to send a message to allies, that though the BJP is assured of an emphatic victory, it will not ride roughshod over them. Bihar Chief Minister and JD (U) president Nitish Kumar, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and Lok Janshakti Party head Ram Vilas Paswan are likely to attend the meeting. It is not clear who will represent the Akali Dal.

All exit polls, except one, have given the NDA a majority; half the polls have given it over 300 seats and three major polls have given the NDA between 330 and 364 seats, which means the BJP would surpass its 2014 tally of 282 and quite possibly cross the 300 mark on its own (ref: NDTV).

But the BJP government, fully aware of the vagaries of exit polls, does not want to leave anything to chance. It has also factored in its tem

plate a twist in the outcome on May 23rd, just in case it does badly in UP and cannot offset the losses in Bengal and Odisha. In such an eventuality -- if Uttar Pradesh

and West Bengal do not throw up the desired result -- the final outcome could be dramatically different than what the exit polls have predicted.

Keeping this canvas in mind, the BJP is not only making sure it keeps existing allies in good humour but is also sending feelers to fence sitters who may like to come on board.

The exit polls have put a break on the unity efforts in the Opposition and the BJP has three days to work on the ‘fence sitters.’ In fact, BJD leader Amar Patnaik on Monday told ANI that the party "would probably support some party or some kind of combination, whichever forms the government at the Centre and agrees to settle some of the unsettled and long pending issues of Odisha." That may be the sentiment elsewhere too if BJP has a resounding victory.

Meanwhile, senior BJP leader and finance minister Arun Jaitley has asserted that the results on May 23 would be in consonance with the message put out by the exit polls. Jaitley sees in the result a maturing of Indian democracy. "The electorate kept national interest paramount before exercising its franchise. When well-meaning people with similar ideas vote in the same direction, it leads to the making of a wave," he has reasoned. He also cautioned that parties unwilling to read the writing on the wall will only sharpen their alienation.