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politics

to Sardar Patel and Subhash Bose are ing hands with the BJP. They consider JDU is also showing strains. Bihar Chief
being made. BJP as their main enemy. Minister Nitish Kumar has started at-
However, it is yet to be seen that how The BJP is finding it difficult to re- tacking the partner. Once a supporter
far personal attacks help BJP in getting tain existing allies as well. If TDP has of demonetization, Kumar has turned
votes to win the battle. The weapon has left National Democratic Alliance, its out to be a critique of it. He is also un-
been used more than once. At least, the other allies are also showing uneasi- happy with the amount sanctioned for
poll results in Gujarat and Karnataka ness. Its pre-poll allies in Bihar, Lok the flood relief. The Chief Minister has
showed that these attacks only margin- Janshakti Party of Ramvilas Paswan indicated that he might agitate for Spe-
ally affected the polls. True, Rahul could and Rashtriya Lok Samata Party of cial Status for the state.
not defeat Modi-Shah combine, he cer- Upendra Kushwaha are exhibiting dis- The tension has been brewing in Ut-
tainly performed well in both the states composure. The post-poll alliance with tar Pradesh as well. Smaller parties like
Apna Dal are also not happy. They are
asking for more seats to contest and BJP
is in no mood to oblige them. The BJP is
also trying to bypass these parties by
• open secrets BJP played its card directly addressing the social segments
openly in Karnataka in anticipation that they are representing. There is a talk of
opposition would roll over change in the reservation formula to
provide separate reservation to other
backward classes under the quota for
backward classes. The party had won
a huge number of seats with the help
of other backward classes in 2014 and
if it is able to change the formula it can
hope to repeat the same without small-
er parties.
On the other hand, Congress has
been winning allies. The regional par-
ties are too joining hands with each
other. Till recently, the SP-BSP alliance
was considered to be the most difficult,
but it has not only become a reality but
also proved to be effective after it won
the Lok Sabha by-polls of Gorakhpur
and Phulpur in Uttar Pradesh.
If Congress’ open arm policy is giv-
ing sleepless nights to BJP leaders, the
attack from opposition on issues like
and saved his party from humiliating unemployment, price rise, high price
defeats. The party increased its percent- While Modi’s of petrol and diesel is also causing dis-
age of votes. comfort to the ruling party.
In addition to attacking the Con- personal “The ruling party before coming
gress, Modi-Shah is trying to find re- credibility still to power made big promises such as
gional allies to force Congress to go to employment to 2 crore youth every
the polls without allies. However, the remains sky high year, remunerative prices to the farm-
party is hardly finding it easy. Most of ers, bringing back black money stashed
the dominant regional parties have and he has run an abroad, eradication of corruption so on
by now gone away from it. Even in the incredibly tight and so forth. There were 42 big prom-
states where the Congress is better ises made but none of the promises has
placed and in a direct fight with the ship, yet the party been fulfilled,” said senior leader Sharad
regional forces, the BJP is being con- has failed to hold Yadav who has just launched a new
sidered the real threat. In these states, political party-Loktantrik Janata Dal.
regional parties are not averse to some on to its high moral
kind of arrangement with the Congress. ground letters@tehelka.com
Here, they do not find any scope of join-

Tehelka / 15 june 2018 23 www.Tehelka.com

22-23 Anil Sinha.indd 3 06/06/18 1:17 PM