From Kashmir to Kerala, BJP allies are unhappy

Back in 2014, the Chanakya of the BJP, Amit Shah would not have imagined that such a loud bugle of rebellion would be blown from Andhra Pradesh. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, who was performing ‘yagya’ with Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the new capital of Andhra, Amarawati, just a few years back, walked out of the National Democratic Alliance on March 16, 2018 and is now openly targeting the BJP.

TDP MP Jaydev Gala said “The BJP has started to play its dirty games. What they did in Tamil Nadu, how they tried to encourage smaller parties and create rift within larger parties, now they are trying to bring similar strategies to AP.”

BJP’s effort to make arrangements with ‘replacement’ political parties in AP is also in trouble. The first announcement of the no-confidence motion on issue of centre not granting special status to Andhra Pradesh was made by Jaganmohan Reddy’s YSR Congress. This is the same party about which rumours that BJP was trying hard to woo it, reached a peak in political corridors and newsrooms in Delhi last week. After Jagan’s announcement, TDP, the ruling party in Andhra Pradesh, finally announced its exit from NDA and declared that it will bring a separate no-confidence motion against the Central government.

TDP MP Shiv Prasad told National Herald, “The BJP is trying to destroy its own allies. It wants that only it should rule, and the rest should be rendered powerless. But we will not let that happen.”

TDP MLC Rayapatti Sambasiva said, “The BJP and Modi government are focusing more on working against the elected governments of the states. They did not fulfil the promises they made. Besides, they keep conspiring to discredit the state governments in their own state. Whatever the Modi government did in Tamil Nadu, we will not let that be repeated in Andhra Pradesh.”

Amit Shah has also received a blow from Kerala. It’s ally BDJS announced its exit from NDA on March 14, making it clear that it will not support the BJP in the upcoming bypoll to the Chengannur assembly seat. Shiv Sena’s distancing from the BJP in Maharashtra is well-known. Despite being part of the central and Maharashtra state governments in partnership with BJP, ANI News reported on Friday that the Shiv Sena would meet and decide it’s stand on the no-confidence motions moved by TDP and YSRC.

The way Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and PDP chief Mahbooba Mufti recently removed her finance minister Haseeb Drabu, perceived to be close to BJP leaders, from her own government shows that the PDP is also highly suspicious of the BJP’s manoeuvres.

Now, it appears that even the smaller NDA allies in Uttar Pradesh like Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party and Apna Dal are getting nervous, specially after BJP’s losses in the Phulpur and Gorakhpur bypolls. OP Rajbhar, SBSP chief and minister in the UP NDA government, told ANI on Friday that neither his party nor the Apna Dal were consulted by the ‘overconfident’ BJP before the bypolls.

The 336-seat NDA of May 2014 four years later is at around 312 seats, including 18 angry Shiv Sena MPs. The BJP will miss those long ago days when it’s Prime Minister and party chief valued, and were valued by, their political allies.