On Sunday, when Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley called on former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa at her Poes Garden residence in Chennai, she greeted him with a huge bouquet of flowers and a gracious smile. Exactly 10 days earlier, on January 8, Mr. Jaitley and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee were photographed at the Global Bengal Business Summit in Kolkata bowing before each other, after she welcomed him with a shawl.
The two images appeared to be at odds with the aggressive way in which the BJP, as a political party, is seeking to make inroads in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, along with Odisha.
The BJP’s two-pronged strategy appears to be holding out the promise of federal cooperation at the government level, even as it follows a policy of confrontation at the political level in all three States.
Party sources say that after last year’s spectacular showing in the Lok Sabha polls, the BJP has been working actively towards breaking new ground in the States where it has a minimal presence. But this, along with the fact that Ms Jayalalithaa, Ms Banerjee and, indeed, even Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik — or their close associates — are facing corruption charges, has meant they are not entirely inclined to support the BJP in Parliament.
In the Lok Sabha, where the BJP has a clear majority, it matters little; but in the Rajya Sabha, where the BJP-led NDA is still in a minority, the government’s ability to pass key laws depends entirely on its ability to get support from a substantial section of the Opposition. In the winter session of Parliament, if the Trinamool Congress was at the forefront of opposing an array of laws, even the AIADMK joined the Opposition on the issue of religious conversion and GST.
Mr. Jaitley described his 40 minutes with Ms Jayalalithaa as a “courtesy call,” as he was in Chennai on Sunday to attend the wedding of RSS ideologue S. Gurumurthy’s daughter. As he was the first Union Minister to meet Ms. Jayalalithaa after her conviction in the disproportionate assets case in September, the meeting assumed significance. As reports suggest, he explained to the AIADMK leader the various measures being undertaken by the Centre to put the economy back on track. Significantly, he is also believed to have sought her party’s support to pass several bills, likely to come up in the budget session.
Earlier in the month, when Mr. Jaitley attended the Global Investors’ Summit in Kolkata, Ms Banerjee set the tone saying: “Political differences will not block the road to development. Arun Jaitley-ji is here to guide us, to give his advice. In a federal structure, a strong Centre and a strong State can only complement each other.” Mr. Jaitley responded warmly, saying: “Aspirational India is growing fast. The Central government strongly stands behind the States for any effort in meeting these aspirations.”
Mr. Jaitley’s visits this month to Kolkata and now to Chennai appear, therefore, to be an effort to neutralise the Trinamool and the AIADMK, with an eye on the upcoming budget session.
