Raising the stakes critically for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the absence of major allies in the NDA camp is threatening to come in the way of its leader LK Advani?s 2009 prime ministerial bid, who launched his campaign for the Lok Sabha polls in Gandhinagar last week.
The refusal by Trinamool Congress, AIADMK and TDP to hitch itself to the NDA bandwagon as well as the JD(U) decision to pitch its election campaign on its own achievements rather than Advani?s leadership has sent worrying signals in the BJP camp, who are apprehensive that this will rally poll sentiment against the opposition coalition in the runup to the elections.
AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa?s decision to join hands with the Left and her recent overtures towards the Congress last week, in fact, came as a major blow to the BJP, which had been hoping desperately for some kind of understanding in Tamil Nadu with the AIADMK. Likewise, indications of a possible tie-up between the Congress and the TC , has also poured cold water over its prospects in the state. TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu too has made his position clear by announcing that his party will not support Advani as prime minister.
More discerning is the stand taken by the JD(U) in Bihar, it last month announced that the party did not subscribe to the BJP?s statements on Ram Temple and that it would contest the polls in Bihar on the issue of development. Nitish?s aggressive posture comes in the wake of assessment that RJD is on a downhill slide in Bihar and the JD(U), after winning a chunk of the Lok Sabha seats, can emerge as a major player in a post-poll situation. Earlier, JD(U) MP Prabhunath Singh, who quit the LS along with others, dared the BJP to contest all 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar on its own and said ??it will find it difficult to fetch even five seats??.
So far, the BJP has only been able to retain allies like the AGP in Assam, INLD in Haryana and SAD in Punjab. While the BJD in Orissa too is still in the NDA camp, there are signs that all is not well between the two. In the recent local bodies elections in the state in which the BJP virtually swept the polls, the state BJP, which failed to secure victories for its candidates, accused the BJD of working against them. Similarly, rumours have started to float in Maharashtra that the Shiv Sena may ditch the BJP to join hands with NCP. At the same time, there is also still no confirmation from the RLD headed by Ajit Singh that they will join the NDA.
Officially, the party has been maintaining that the alliance is formidable and that more alliances are being worked out. That the party, however, is now reconciling itself to going to the polls with the limited number of allies was evident when Advani told BJP workers in Gandhinagar last week that the party has to fight on its own strength. ??Allies don?t come for nothing, alliances happen on the basis of our own strength… The stronger we get, the more allies we fetch,?? he said.