BJP ready to share political space again

As expected, the Foundation Day Rally of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was a grand success as far as attendance and event management was concerned. Lakhs of party workers and volunteers assembled to witness the extravaganza and also to listen to the fiery speech of the party President Amit Shah. As expected, Shah’s speech heralded the beginning of campaign for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and, as expected, he offered an olive branch to party’s friend-turned-foe Shiv Sena and vowed to face the forthcoming polls in alliance with the latter. However, unexpectedly, the Sena turned down the offer summarily and reiterated its plan to go in the fray on its own strength.

The BJP, the new Avatar of the erstwhile Bharatiya Jana Sangh was formed on 6th April 1980 after leaders owing loyalty to the Rashriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and right-wing political philosophy decided to leave the Janata Party. Since then, the party came a long way. The party that could return only to MPs after its formation, grabbed power in Delhi twice as a leading constituent of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and on its own strength in 2014. Now that the party faces a steep challenge to retain its power in 2019 elections, the top leaders have started finding out occasions and reasons to grab platform to send the party message across. The sudden remembrance of its 38th Foundation Day was one of these exercises.

Pioneers ignored

The path of the party from utter rejection to mammoth acceptance across India is splendid and astonishing. Many leaders including L K Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Sushma Swaraj and, of course, Atal Bihari Vajpayee waged fierce fight at various levels and kept the party alive making it grow leaps and bounces. Of these towering leaders, Vajpayee is now ailing, and thus, has stopped participating in any public function. However, the rest are still active in politics. Curiously, the new leadership of the party, ie Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Party President Amit Shah have consciously decided to leave them behind. The result was obvious. None of the above mentioned party dignitaries were present on the dais when the grand extravaganza of the Foundation Day was celebrated. Modi, who was serving as an RSS Pracharak in 1980, and Shah, who was not in picture then, have now grabbed the centre-stage and the earlier leadership is left behind. This was widely realised at the grand gala at the huge Bandra-Kurla Complex grounds in Mumbai on Friday.

As expected, all eyes and ears were concentrated to Amit Shah, who spoke and commented on many issues during his hour-long address. Obviously, the forthcoming elections in Karnataka to be followed by Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and finally the Lok Sabha polls in 2019 was the focal point of his speech. As a built-up, he bitterly criticised the ‘four-generation rule’ of the Congress and concentrated his attack on Sonia and Rahul Gandhi. He also spoke about the ‘good conduct’ of his party governments in the 21 states where BJP is part of the power, Maharashtra being one of them.

However, what the party workers’ ears were at the most was his remarks about possible alliance with the Shiv Sena in the coming elections. While the Sena leaders have made it amply clear on many times and on various for that the Saffron Party is prepared to enter the next battle-field on its own strength and does not wish to forge any alliance with any other party including the BJP, Shah unilaterally declared that his party would go to the next elections in alliance. What could be the intention of his no holds barred offer to the Sena? Is it just another effort to create atmosphere of chaos and confusion in the Sena Camp? To keep it unaware of his final plans? Or is it that he wants the Sena to be with him to ensure a win in the Lok Sabha elections? If the alliance is forged for the Lok Sabha elections, will it continue for the State Assembly also? Or like 2014, the BJP plans to leave the Sena in a lurch by pulling out the carpet at the last minute?

Keeping Sena in good humour

If at all, Shah wanted to keep the Sena in good humour, for now, it is because the BJP faces an uphill task in retaining power in 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Now, that Chandrababu Naidu has already gone out of the NDA fold and that in UP and in Rajasthan, the party would be facing a tough task to repeat its performance in 2019, the BJP does not want to lose any more allies. Thus, Shah wants to retain the Sena on his side. However, once the objective to defend Delhi is achieved, there is obviously no guarantee that the alliance would remain intact for the next six months.

Sensing this fatal danger, the Sena senior leader Subhash Desai immediately made the party mind clear and declared that the Sena will go for the next elections on its own, thus gave full-stop to the rumour and gossip mills. Now, that the BJP top leadership has come in open to embrace the Sena once again, it is for Shah and his men in Mumbai to see that Sena’s demands are met and more olive branches are offered to appease the Sena leaders.

Is the latest authentic gossip that the BJP had offered the post of Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman to the Sena was an effort in the direction to keep the latter obliged?

Bharatkumar Raut is a political analyst and former Member of Parliament (RS).