M A I N   N E W S

Modi-Shah combo delivers yet again
Verdict sends a subtle message to all allies
KV Prasad
Tribune News Service

BJP supporters celebrate the party’s victory in the Assembly polls, in New Delhi on Sunday. Tribune photo: Manas Ranjan Bhui

New Delhi, October 19
The BJP juggernaut under Narendra Modi-Amit Shah is rolling on like never before, crushing political opponents standing in the way. Four months after its resounding victory in the General Election, the results of Assembly polls in Haryana and Maharashtra reinforced the BJP's supremacy in its march towards emerging as a party with pan-India presence.

After making a calculated political gamble of going it alone, the BJP nearly pulled it off. This after Shiv Sena, its ally of 25 years, decided to break free owing to differences on seat sharing. The verdict carries a subtle message for all its allies, including the Shiromani Akali Dal in Punjab.

The BJP, under Modi-Shah combine, once again struck gold with a formula that rode the party to power in Haryana on its own and put it in the driver's seat in Maharashtra. BJP president Amit Shah sought to emphasise that it was more than accommodating with the Shiv Sena by continuing to retain its representative at the Centre and working together in the Mumbai Municipal Corporation, even after the end of the alliance.

Similarly in Haryana, the BJP sought to go it alone after it made efforts to rework a previous arrangement with Kuldeep Bishnoi's Haryana Janhit Congress. The arrangement was stitched much ahead of the General Election after the party decided against doing any business with the Indian National Lok Dal, another party it worked with in the past.

In both states the BJP wanted to renegotiate relations from a position of strength the party acquired after the stunning Lok Sabha verdict and any ally which refused to read the altered political landscape could do so at their own risk.

In the next three years, the BJP's big test will be in Bihar next year where once again the party's ally Janata Dal (United) broke away before the Lok Sabha elections. In the byelections, the JD (U) worked in tandem with its two-decade rival Rashtriya Janata Dal and stopped the BJP 'Rath'. In this context, the Assembly elections should be viewed as a different test-bed.

In 2016, of the states that go to polls barring Assam, the BJP had had no partners in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. In 2017, of the five assemblies, it has an existing tie-up in Punjab with the SAD.