Despite the hype, the BJP is well aware of the negatives stacked against it if the opposition comes together. It knows very well that a well-stitched alliance can pose a challenge to its dream run. BY KUMKUM CHADHA
Finally, there seems to be some light at the end of the tunnel. At least for the Opposition, rather the I.N.D.I.A. alliance or Indi, as the critics prefer to term it.
By knocking off the A, they had perhaps thought that the Grand alliance would also be piecemeal, which perhaps it was, given that every party was speaking in different voices.
If Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee hit out by saying that the Congress would not get more than 40 seats, Aam Aadmi Party declared that it would go solo in Punjab.
The last straw was when the Farooq Abdullah-led National Conference declared that it would contest the Lok Sabha seats “independently”. Decode this and it means that the alliance was falling like a house of cards.
The BJP was ecstatic because an Opposition alliance would be the last thing it would want to see. It is no secret that since its inception, the BJP was in panic mode.
However, what was music to the BJP’s ears was that within a few months, the alliance was a divided house. Yet, the BJP was not complacent. It left nothing to chance just in case, so to speak.
And it is this just in case that has proved it right. The alliance seems to have come together with AAP and the Congress agreeing on seat sharing in crucial states including Delhi and Gujarat and still counting.
Of course, there are several bridges that are yet to be crossed including the arrangement with Trinamool Congress.
The Opposition coming together to fight the BJP is good news for individual parties and the country. It cannot be denied even by pro-BJP lobbies that a strong Opposition is the answer to a strong and viable democracy. And if anything can check the BJP’s ride to the power, it is a united Opposition.
And this is bad news for the BJP. Therefore for it to check this and do whatever it takes is understandable.
However, what does not fit in is BJP being on tenterhooks. And this it was, even when the alliance was as divided as enemies.
It is at this point that one needs to ask: is the BJP’s buoyancy mere optics? Is abki baar char so paar a mere slogan? Or is the Party as confident as it is positioning itself to be?
There are a few pointers that indicate that the answers to the above questions may be in the affirmative.
Were it not so, why would the BJP step in wherever it got even less than a foothold? The fact that it was overactive even for an insignificant election of a mayor in Chandigarh is enough to substantiate BJP’s overzealousness. Or should we say its jitteriness ?
While on the Mayor’s election, the Court came down like “a ton of bricks” to quote lawyer politician Abhishek Manu Singhvi and overturned the result.
Till the Court stepped in, the BJP candidate had secured a win over the AAP-Congress alliance candidate.
Interestingly, the returning officer is associated with the BJP for over a decade.
That being so, one is compelled to repeat the question: is the BJP nervous and is its upbeat mood a fallacy?
But given the way things have shaped up, the BJP has enough reason to be smug and actually sit pretty.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government seem to be in a comfortable position having delivered well on the welfare schemes and of course having gifted the Ram temple to god-hungry Indians.
Add to this the fact that the world is looking towards India with envy. The list is long enough to push BJP’s communal and divisive politics under the carpet.
So why and what is BJP’s worry for it to expose itself in insignificant elections like a Chandigarh mayor’s?
Or unleash the Enforcement Directorate on the Opposition? It is, therefore, not without reason that people are asking: Are there defaulters only among the Opposition? Are there no black sheep within the BJP? And why are agencies hounding only those the BJP fails to tame?
The answer is obvious. The fact is that under the BJP rule, there is no level playing field. Simply put, this means: walk with us else we will let the dogs loose on you.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar may be a willing partner but there are others who were coerced into joining hands with the saffron party.
Therefore the picture may not be as rosy as the BJP may wish it to be, given the challenges particularly from the South and the Eastern belt of India. Modi may ride the North wave but the same may elude him in other parts.
Even in a worst case scenario, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee remains a formidable force who the BJP would find hard to vanquish.
The mishandling of the Manipur situation is another minus in the BJP’s electoral count. And of course, the southern states may continue to spring surprises much to the BJP’s angst.
Therefore it is imperative that the BJP counts its chickens before flashing the char sau paar figure.
The reality is that the Opposition could well gain from putting up a united front to take on the BJP.
Given that the BJP vote share is less than 40 percent as past elections have amply demonstrated, the alliance partners are working towards a consolidation of a major chunk to cause a dent in the BJP’s speed-march.
While doing so, it is quite aware that it cannot halt BJP’s victory march which, as of now, seems a foregone conclusion but what it can do is help reduce the numbers.
Statistics apart, the Opposition is also banking on the silent vote to speed brake BJP’s free run, as it were. There are not many takers for the current trend of aggressive politics that the BJP has unleashed. Add to this, the worry about a complete absence or a negligible presence of the Opposition in a democracy.
Given the BJP’s track record, its leadership would probably say: So be it but then this take it or leave it attitude neither augurs well for the country nor its democracy.
On its part, the Opposition alliance is banking on this segment or the “silent vote” as it calls it, to come out and vote against the BJP, not to speak of those being crushed under the menace of price rise and unemployment.
As things stand, this seems to be the best case scenario for the Opposition alliance: to check the BJP numbers and ensure that it does not have a free run for the next five years.
This seems to be the immediate challenge for the BJP and therefore it would do what it takes to ensure that the alliance fails.
Irrespective of the hype, it is well aware of the negatives stacked against it, if the opposition comes together. And this, perhaps more than anything else, is making the BJP nervous because the Modi wave notwithstanding, the alliance, if stitched well, can pose a challenge to the saffron party’s dream-run.
