The BJP’s eagerness to woo allies ahead of the Lok Sabha elections has now been replaced with resoluteness in dealing with them as developments in election-bound States indicate. The tough approach towards ally Shiv Sena in Maharashtra is a pointer to the changed stance.
Shiv Sena leader, >Uddhav Thackeray had on Saturday said he did not hanker after the post of Chief Minister but would be open to accepting it if the situation demanded. “We cannot have a quarrel with that formulation,” a senior BJP leader who refused to be identified said, adding that the party is firm that the Chief Minister will be elected after the elections.
BJP general secretary Muaralidhar Rao, one of the two party leaders who spoke on record on the subject, said, “In both States, we will be fighting on two issues. First is the Congress-misrule — in Haryana for 10 years and in Maharashtra for 15 years. The second campaign plank is the BJP model of governance, exemplified by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.”
He was confident that the party’s “ideological affinity with the Shiv Sena” will keep the alliance intact.
BJP national spokesperson Capt. Abhimanyu, a Haryana leader, said, “The HJC chose to discontinue the alliance, while we were willing to negotiate, even though we were in a position to win alone. We will win a two-thirds majority in the State.”
Seat-sharing formula In Maharashtra, the BJP is insisting on a 50:50 sharing of the State’s 288 seats, replacing the 2009 formula of 169 and 119 seats for the Shiv Sena and the BJP respectively. The BJP’s buoyancy derives from the fact that the party had a better strike rate than the Shiv Sena in the Lok Sabha election, winning 23 of the 24 seats it contested and also in the 2009 Assembly election. In Haryana, where the BJP won seven of the 10 Lok Sabha seats, Mr. Bishnoi himself lost the seat he contested.
The BJP’s Haryana push has put a strain on its alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal, a partner in Punjab and at the Centre. The Akali Dal has entered into an alliance with the Indian National Lok Dal in Haryana and Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has announced that he would be campaigning in Haryana for the alliance.
