Learn from poll debacle, allies tell BJP

Patna: After the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) suffered serious electoral reverses in three key Indian states, losing power to the Congress, allies have now asked the saffron camp to learn from the poll debacle.

At least, two BJP allies, the Janata Dal United (JD-U) headed by Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) led by federal minister Ram Vilas Paswan, have gone vocal and suggested the BJP leadership not to raise emotive issues in the elections. The next general elections are due early next year.

“We want the BJP to focus on the key issues of development, uprooting corruption and enhancing nation’s prestige, issues it raised during 2014 Lok Sabha polls but some leaders are raising emotive issues to fan up communal tension. Rulers should not do anything that could create tension,” JD-U general secretary KC Tyagi told the media on Thursday.

He also asked the BJP leadership to maintain proper coordination with its allies and carry them along. He said NDA leaders should be involved in launching a joint poll campaign which indeed could bring better results. “There should be greater participation of old allies like Nitish Kumar and Punjab leader Prakash Singh Badal in comprehensive policymaking decisions,” Tyagi suggested.

The LJP too focused on the same issues and advised the BJP leadership not to include the Ram temple in the poll agenda since this confuses the general masses. “I suggest the BJP leaders to speak after due consideration. They should not make Ram temple or Hanuman, a prominent Hindu deity, as the poll agenda,” LJP parliamentary board chairman Chirag Paswan said talking to the media on Thursday.

He said there was an urgent need to set the poll agenda which should be development and development. “The BJP, especially the NDA, has focused on the issue of development for long, but if they divert from this issue, that will only create confusion among the general voters,” Paswan added. He is also of the view that the allies should be given “proper respect”.

The allies have found themselves ignored and have been kept away by the BJP in talking key policy decisions and even in matters of seat distribution, it is alleged. Although the BJP has announced to contest on equal number of LS seats with the JD-U in Bihar, it is yet to make formal announcement in this regard, while the BJP chief Amit Shah had announced to finalise the seat-sharing deal by October-end itself. The LJP too is annoyed at not being given “respectable” number of seven seats it was offered in the last LS polls.

Another BJP ally, the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) headed by Upendra Kushwaha got so annoyed with shabby treatment meted out to him by the saffron leadership that he has already quit the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Kushwaha who was a junior minister in the Narendra Modi government, tried hard to meet both the BJP chief Amit Shah and the Prime Minister to put forward his views, but failed to get appointment from both. The insults ultimately prompted him to dump the NDA earlier this week.