NEW DELHI: With some cracks showing up in the ruling NDA alliance, just a year before the Lok Sabha elections,
BJP swung into a damage control drive on Tuesday. BJP chief
Amit Shah met UP ally Omprakash Rajbhar and deputed Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan and party general secretary Bhupinder Yadav to talk out the differences with Bihar ally
Ram Vilas Paswan here on Tuesday.
In the same week that N Chandrababu Naidu's TDP pulled out of the NDA and demanded a "no-confidence" motion in Lok Sabha, two of its allies - Paswan's LJP from Bihar and Rajbhar's Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) from Uttar Pradesh, were making noises that could mean trouble for BJP even if it is not in terms of numbers, but for message that would sent out, if they had quit NDA.
Amit Shah met Rajbhar here on Tuesday, after he sounded disgruntled in the last couple of days saying he was undecided on whether his four MLAs would vote for BJP in the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections for 10 seats from the state. Coming on the heels of the Gorakhpur and Phulpur bypoll reverses for the party, the BJP leadership met with Rajbhar and assured him of further coordination, since he has complained about his issues not being addressed while he was trying to meet Shah over the last eight months.
While BJP has not been holding regular meetings with alliance partners in the last four years, it has recently faced problems with allies like Shiv Sena being openly critical of it, Raju Shetti's Shetkari Paksh in Maharashtra quitting few months ago and now TDP quitting the NDA.
"My party will vote for NDA candidates in Rajya Sabha polls. I had a good meeting with BJP president Amit Shah who assured me of heeding to our demands including that of regular interactions," UP cabinet minister Rajbhar told TOI after the meeting. "Problem was lack of communication... I was seeking time with Shah for the last eight months. He has promised to look into our demands like accommodating the Rajbhar community in the existing 27 per cent quota for Scheduled Castes in the next meeting on April 10," Rajbhar added.
After his meeting with Yadav and Pradhan, Paswan dismissed as "unthinkable" suggestions that his alliance with BJP is under strain. He was critical of some BJP leaders' (alleged) making communal statements recently and advised BJP to take along all sections of society, setting off speculation about his future plans. "The NDA is not in any difficulty. I had said that there is no vacancy for the prime minister's post in 2019. Narendra Modi will remain PM and NDA will remain intact," he told reporters.
While he was critical of a section of BJP leaders in Bihar, Paswan said that the party has leaders like deputy CM Sushil Modi, Nand Kishore Yadav and Shahnawaz Hussain in the state who cannot be considered "communal".
