The BJP is stitching up alliances with small players to make big gains in States going to polls this summer.
The party on Thursday formally announced its alliance with the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) in Assam, and the Bharath Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS) in Kerala.
In Assam, the only State where the BJP realistically hopes to pose a challenge to the ruling Congress, the party has tied up with AGP, the Bodo People’s Front (BDF) and Rabha Autonomous Council.
Union Minister of State Sarbanand Sonowal has been projected as the BJP-led alliance’s Chief Ministerial candidate. AGP leader Prafull Kumar Mahanta met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday to put the final seal on the alliance.
Assam seat-sharing Announcing the contours of the alliance, Union Minister and BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said the AGP will fight 24 of the total 126 seats. The distribution among the BJP, the dominant partner, and the BDF and Rabha Council, will be announced a little later, he said.
The predominant theme of the “alliance of indigenous people and nationalist forces” in Assam would be to oppose “infiltrators”. The “indigenous and predominantly Hindu” alliance will be counter to the Congress, which is widely believed to have an understanding with Badruddin Ajmal’s All India Democratic United Front (AIUDF).
“We are happy to announce our alliance with the AGP to root out corruption, lack of development and governance of Tarun Gogoi and the Congress. Besides development and our fight against corruption, we will focus on infiltration, which the Congress has patronised and colluded with in Assam,” said Ravi Shankar Prasad. The AGP, which has led past governments in Assam, has clearly lost political capital to such an extent that they are ready to accept a handful of 24 seats and be a junior partner to the BJP.
Answering a question on whether this reflects their diminished political status in Assam, AGP leader Atul Bora said, “Our alliance with the BJP is on ideological grounds. We could not fulfil our promise to the people about throwing out foreigners earlier. We will now do it with the BJP.”
Natesan finally relents In Kerala, the BJP’s acceptance of the BDJS, floated by Vellappally Natesan, General Secretary of the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam (SNDP), into the NDA on Thursday, comes at the end of nearly two months of confusion, contradictory statements, and lack of enthusiasm on the part of the Kerala unit of the party.
Over the past two months, Natesan had given mixed signals about his intentions, thus infuriating the BJP’s State leadership which had, at the behest of the central leadership, done all it could to woo him. Even last week, he and his son Tushar Vellappally, the BDJS’ formal president, had told the media that the party was open to alliance with either of the rival fronts UDF or LDF, and the BJP was not excluded too.
At one point, the BDJS even gave out an impression that it would not contest the elections as it wanted to build the party base.
The wary BJP leaders had realised that Natesan, a businessman who had made his crores mainly from liquor trade and railway contracts, was making these statements for securing a good bargain.
However, the central leadership, keen on opening the party’s account in the Assembly this time, pressed the State leadership to clinch the deal with Natesan at any cost.
The BDJS was launched at the behest of the RSS and Sangh Parivar organisations, which are very active in Kerala.