Diwali arrived early for the BJP when the party registered what Prime Minister Narendra Modi described as a “historic” performance in the Maharashtra and Haryana Assembly elections, on Sunday.
In a repeat of its show in the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP notched up a simple majority for the first time in Haryana with 47 seats in the 90-member Assembly and a staggering 33.2 per cent of the vote share.
In a four-cornered contest in Maharashtra, the BJP emerged the largest party with 122 seats and 27.8 per cent of the vote.
The incumbent Congress was relegated to the third spot in both States.
There was no decision on which of the numerous chief ministerial aspirants in Haryana — Captain Abhimanyu, Manohar Lal Khattar, Ram Bilas Sharma, Rao Inderjeet Singh — would be picked by the party. “You don’t seriously want me to spill the beans on this one in a press conference, do you?” quipped BJP president Amit Shah.
But the more dramatic events unfolded in Maharashtra, where the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) came forward with an offer of “unconditional support” to the BJP. “The BJP has emerged as the single-largest party and we feel that we should give them support from outside so that they can form the government in the interest of the stability and development of the state,” said NCP leader Praful Patel.
Short of majority In a House of 288 members, the BJP is 23 short of the halfway mark to form the government. The Shiv Sena, with 63 seats and 19.3 per cent of vote share, still appeared to be the BJP’s first choice as an ally in government formation. The NCP’s offer could provide the party with additional leverage over the Shiv Sena.
The BJP’s highest decision-making body, the parliamentary board, discussed the party’s political choices late in the evening. The board decided to send former party president and Home Minister Rajnath Singh along with party general secretary JP Nadda to Maharashtra as observers in the process of the state legislature party electing a new leader. Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu, along with Dinesh Sharma, was appointed the central observer for the election of the State legislature party leader in Haryana.
Amit Shah cautious Although Nadda refused to say anything other than “the parliamentary board is aware of the NCP’s support”, Shah had earlier indicated that the party was not inclined to run a minority government with the NCP’s support. He noted that the BJP’s association with the Shiv Sena continues in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and that a Sena leader, Anant Geete, is still a Union Minister.
While Shah was still circumspect in revealing the BJP’s preference for the Shiv Sena over the NCP, at least two leaders in the party, LK Advani and Prakash Javadekar, stated that the party should resume its ties with the Sena. They also dismissed suggestions that the BJP may run a minority government with the NCP’s outside support.
“I hope that … the alliance is restored. It will be good if the old relationship between the BJP and the Shiv Sena is revived. I had said earlier, too, that this relationship should not have broken,” Advani said. He dismissed the possibility of the party having any alliance with Sharad Pawar’s NCP.
Information and Broadcasting Minister Javadekar, who hails from Maharashtra, said there was “no question” of aligning with the NCP. “We fought the Congress and the NCP. We fought their corruption. There is no question of aligning with the NCP,” he said.