BJP allies eye bigger role in NDA matters after poll results

NEW DELHI: Having disappointed itself on Thursday, by failing to reach the majority mark on its own, BJP, seemed to have returned to a situation where it is clearly at the mercy of its allies, with Shiv Sena holding the key to forming government in Maharashtra and Dushyant Chautala’s JJP (Jananayak Janata Party) emerging as a new ally to return to office in Haryana, after the assembly results in the two states.
The allies, especially the older ones like Shiv Sena and JD(U) in Bihar are obviously happier than they were for the last few months, since the Lok Sabha results in May had put BJP overwhelmingly in charge of the entire say in the NDA.
Thursday’s results come within months of BJP’s grand LS victory- with a 302 mandate on its own– rendering its coalition partners almost irrelevant and leading to the expectation that BJP would be back in office in both the states, almost on its own, just like it did in 2014, riding the same wave.
But with BJP weakened, its allies seem to be back in business. They feel they have a better say in matters in the coalition system as compared to the way they felt ignored after the Narendra Modi regime returned to office at the Centre. It is bound to make BJP more cautious in dealing with its allies.
Visible signs of alliance trouble almost every day between Sena and BJP in Maharashtra and also between JD(U) and BJP in Bihar, which goes to polls exactly a year from now, had generated the feeling that BJP was working towards negating any dependence on them in the respective states and was working steadily to improve its own strength on the ground at their cost.
The friction in Maharashtra could be read in the Sena mouthpiece “Saamna” regularly for the last five years. When Sena chief Uddhav Thackaray demanded a 50-50 share in government formation on Thursday, he was making it clear that it has to be an at-par relationship between the allies to hold government in Mumbai.
In Bihar too, recent statements by BJP leaders from the state against chief minister and JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar or other leaders in his party have been aggravating, in an obvious attempt to restrict the ally to a “lower” status and go for larger share of seats in the state for the assembly polls next year. But Thursday’s results will surely put a spanner in the works.
Even the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), an ally in Punjab for long years had been upset with BJP for snatching away its lone sitting MLA in Haryana, Kalanwali Balkaur Singh, to contest from the saffron party. An angry SAD leader Sukhbir Badal held a press conference earlier in the month and snapped ties with BJP in the state over it. Later the SAD tied up with INLD for the Haryana polls.