Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, July 18: The BJP’s mega gathering of 38 parties started on Tuesday evening at the Ashoka Hotel in Delhi within hours of the united opposition concluded their gathering in Bengaluru.
The Prime Minister Narendra Modi greeted his allies saying, “It is a matter of immense joy that our valued NDA partners from across India will be attending the meeting in Delhi today. Ours is a time-tested alliance which seeks to further national progress and fulfil regional aspirations,” he had tweeted earlier in the day.
Barring a few like the AIADMK of Tamil Nadu, JJP of Haryana and a few ruling partners of the BJP in the north-eastern states, most of the other 38 parties joining the NDA camp are smaller allies with small pockets of influence. Most of them have no MPs and a few not even an MLA and many of the smaller allies are hoping to sail the electoral ocean on Modi’s boat instead of helping the BJP by fetching votes. They hope that given the current popularity of Modi, joining the NDA would give them an opportunity to settle their aspirations for seats in the next year’s election.
The BJP has been networking in a planned manner. Already strong in most northern states, the BJP has been sticking to its plan of beefing up in the south, west and northeast. In crucial states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, it is only seeking to extend its footprint by patching in parties that have influence among backward classes and scheduled castes and tribes.
In Bihar, Nitish Kumar had mopped up all the parties into the Grand Alliance, leaving only the fractured Lok Janshakti Party to the BJP. The BJP is now attempting to effect a reconciliation between Chirag Paswan and his uncle which will give it access to the six per cent Paswan votes.
Three more parties from Bihar — Upendra Singh Kushwaha of the Rashtriya Lok Samta Party, and Mukesh Sahani of the Vikassheel Insaan Party and Jitin Ram Manjhi of Hindustani Awam Morcha have also joined the NDA. In the south, the BJP has drawn actor Pawan Kalyan’s Jan Sena and the faction of Kerala Congress led by Kerala Congress (Thomas).
This is the first such meeting of the National Democratic Alliance ahead of next year’s general elections — a fact the opposition has been taking digs at since then meeting was announced a few days ago. Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge claimed the BJP is reacting to the opposition’s unity move.
“Earlier, they (the BJP) never cared. They never spoke… Tukde tukde ho gaya tha (the NDA was in pieces)… Now PM trying to put them together. It shows he is afraid of the Opposition,” Kharge said. About the parties attending the NDA meet, he added, “Don’t know who they are. If they are registered parties, I have not heard that there are so many parties in India”.
Union minister Pralhad Joshi and BJP general secretary Vinod Tawde welcomed the leaders, from the BJP as well as allies, who arrived at the venue of the meeting. It underscores the ruling party’s focus on highlighting its ability to make alliances at a time when opposition parties were coming together to take on the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Prime Minister Modi was welcomed by BJP president J.P. Nadda, Shiv Sena leader and Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, former Tamil Nadu chief minister and AIADMK leader K. Palaniswami and Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio.
Dormant till very recently, the NDA has stirred alive coming together for coordination talks. That means that for now, 64 parties are under the INDIA or NDA umbrella. But there are some major parties that have stayed away, either due to the politics at play in their states, their equations with specific parties, or their desire to come across as neutral.
The list of such parties included the Karnataka-based Janata Dal (Secular), Punjab-based Shiromani Akali Dal, the UP-based Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Odisha ruling party Biju Janata Dal (BJD), the Telangana ruling group Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), Andhra Pradesh ruling party YSRCP, Haryana-based INLD and Hyderabad-based AIMIM.