Maha power play—Wages of misadventure await BJP

Success need not always succeed success. By its Ill-thought-out move in Maharashtra the BJP’s image has taken a huge hit. The top leaders of the party will now be regretting that it was a misadventure they should have avoided.

Power makes one heady, and absolute power headier. After stealing a march over rivals, first in Goa and then in Karnataka, BJP’s supreme strategists might have thought that they were invincible, and emerge unscathed all situations.

There were better and viable options for the BJP in Maharashtra, if it chose to wait, instead of stealthily rushing to the government formation. In the bargain, it not only failed to retain power but also, which is far graver, earned the ill reputation as a party that has no qualms in going to any extent to flout the rules and norms.

The scenario was not that bleak for the BJP before it took the suicidal step. The party should have projected itself as the ‘victim’ of Shiv Sena’s post-poll betrayal, and the power lust of treacherous NCP and the Congress. It would have gained much sympathy by exposing the Sena-NCP-Congress convergence as the most opportunistic alliance, whose only motive was to keep the BJP at bay at any cost. Then, the BJP would have waited either till the three-party combine cower under its own contradictions or an opportune moment to come to pull down the government.

The biggest mis-step of the BJP strategists appeared to be that they simply went by Ajit Pawar’s assurance that he had the support of the majority of the NCP MLAs. Instead of acting without closely verifying the situation, they should have asked Ajit Pawar to make a public pronouncement of his intentions and waited till the finest detail was tied.

The national implications of the aborted power play are far more critical for the BJP. How would it counter the opposition charge that it is a party that has least respect to the Constitutional provisions and parliamentary conventions? Going by the way it acted, it would not be easy for the party leaders to deflect the opposition onslaught over bending and breaking rules.

Politically, the Maharashtra development will cement the opposition unity further at the all-India level. With the Congress agreeing to share power with Shiv Sena, the ideological divide in political alliances has got obliterated. If the experiment proves a success and lasts, Congress will not hesitate to do business with any party that is opposed to the BJP in any part of the country. The ‘secular’, ‘non-secular’ concerns in choosing partners will no longer bother the grand old the party. Its top brass is sure to mute the internal dissenting voices over this issue.

The BJP’s discomfiture in Maharashtra is certain to cast a shadow over the future of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) as a stable coalition. The constituents in the NDA, though most of them smaller players, are not very comfortable with the way the combine is led by the BJP. Some noises have already been made by certain quarters. Shiv Sena’s exit and realignment with NCP and the Congress gives them the assurance that they will not be relegated to a political periphery in the event of them opting out of the NDA.

Since perception and optics are vital in present day power play, the outcome of the Jharkhand assembly polls will be crucial for the BJP. If it fails to retain power in the state that will further shatter its confidence and sense of invincibility. Elections to the Delhi Assembly, which is not very far off, will be the second major test for the party.- N Muraleedharan

(N Muraleedharan is senior journalist and political critic)