BJP heads coalition government at Centre, can BJP state govts help? | Opinion Analysis News

Forging an alliance is one thing. Carrying it all the way is another. If the BJP is to remain in power at the Centre for the next five years, its state governments will have a major role to play

Prime Minister Narendra Modi with NDA leaders after the alliance meeting on government formation.

New Delhi: The ruling TDP in Andhra Pradesh and the ruling JD(U) in Bihar are two crucial allies propping up the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP government at the Centre. Together, CM Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP and CM Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) have 28 MPs. And together, the duo has been able to secure a lion’s share of the 2024 budget for AP and Bihar. In Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s 85-minute budget speech, which didn’t even mention several states, it was a windfall for Bihar. It got projects worth Rs 60,000 crore — Rs 26,000 crore for the road projects, Rs 21,400 crore for a 2,400 MW power plant and Rs 11,500 crore to develop irrigation projects to prevent floods and related disasters. AP has been given Rs 15,000 crore for the development of a new state capital – Amaravati. This is just the first term.

This plethora of development in the two states even prompted the Leader of the Opposition, Rahul Gandhi, to describe the budget as “Bachao course Budget” (Saving the government Budget). But such is the coercive nature of coalition politics that even a Congress prime minister in Modi’s position would have done the same. It is important to keep the allies happy.

Despite enjoying an absolute majority rule at the Centre for 10 years, the Budget 2024 has shown that the BJP has quickly learnt the basic rules of ‘coalition dharma’. What is important, however, is that even the BJP state governments are also learning the trick of keeping the allies in good humour. Recently, CM Yogi Adityanath in UP and Pushkar Dhami in Uttarakhand did not help the BJP cause by issuing directives for the eateries on the Kanwar Yatra route to mandatorily display their property. The opposition parties were quick to charge that this ‘divisive directive’ was aimed at an economic boycott of the minorities.

Unhappy BJP allies

And while the opposition was expected to question the move, BJP allies like JD(U), RLD and LJP did not hold back from criticising it. They expressed concern over the decision and demanded a rethink, terming it as “unconstitutional and divisive”. Union minister and RLD leader Jayant Chaudhary said the decision was not thought through and the “Kanwarias do not keep an eye on the faith of those who serve them”. JD(U) general secretary KC Tyagi reminded the BJP that the Kanwar Yatra to Deoghar in Bihar and Jharkhand is much bigger than Haridwar, but no such order has ever been issued by the Bihar government. “It is against Prime Minister Modi’s description of Indian society and his credo of ‘safe sitting safe vichar‘. It would be good if the UP government reconsiders it,” Tyagi had asserted. A similar belief was expressed by Union minister and LJP leader Chirag Paswan. The Bihar leader claimed that he would “never support or encourage” such divisions in the name of caste or religion. The allies’ remarks misled these state governments, which later claimed that it was not a GO (Government Order) and that the directive was issued by the local police keeping the law and order situation in mind. The issue was raised in Parliament and only after the Supreme Court stayed the order did the issue take a back seat. Even in Madhya Pradesh, the Ujjain municipal body has issued a similar directive.

The SC order was welcomed by opposition parties like Congress, TMC, Samajwadi Party and RJD. Meanwhile, if the issue had persisted, the rumours with BJP allies like JD(U), RLD and LJP would have only grown louder. Because, unlike BJP, several of these parties are dependent on minority support to win seats. Take the case of Meerapur in Muzaffarnagar, which is going to by-elections because its RLD MLA is now RLD’s MP from Bijnor — Chandan Chauhan. The constituency has over one lakh Muslim votes. Though RLD won this seat in 2022 in an alliance with SP, it will not be easy for Jayant Chaudhary to win here after losing minority support. And even if it wins now with BJP support, RLD will never be able to win this seat on its own. And that is exactly what its smaller allies fear.

The burden lies with the BJP state governments

The fact remains that though in alliance, different parties have different histories, different public support and sometimes even different political agendas. It is important that the larger partner respects these differences and does not try to cripple the junior partners with their agenda. For no part in an alliance wants to lose its popular support base, no matter what temptations. Such unnecessary push and pull can only create friction and disagreements. As a result, not only the central government but also the state governments of the BJP will have to consider the sentiments of the alliance partners before committing to policies that may harm their political interests. This is what coalition dharma is and only by following it honestly and selflessly can the BJP complete the next five years in power.

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author alone. The opinions and facts expressed in this article do not represent the position of News9.)