BJP, allies talk it over

It was not just to work out floor coordination ahead of the Budget session of Parliament or decide a strategy for the 2017 Punjab elections that the BJP and its allies met in Delhi in the past couple of days. The interaction comes in the backdrop of a continuing BJP-PDP stalemate, which is testing the managerial skills of the party leadership. Regardless of the attempts to send an 'all-is-well' message, certain issues have strained BJP relations with the allies, though not to the point of break-up. The mishandling of the Hyderabad Dalit suicide by the Centre has left allies annoyed. They fear a loss of Dalit votes in the coming elections. 

Like the Congress during the UPA-2 days, the BJP too tends to consolidate powers and take unilateral decisions on key issues. Allies feel a lack of consultations. A Shiv Sena leader has been quoted as saying, "Sometimes, we have difficulty understanding whether this is our government." Even a usually less vocal leader like Chandrababu Naidu has told the BJP to be more supportive of the allies. Given the frequent snub, an embarrassed Akali leadership has stopped asking for financial help to tide over the financial crisis in Punjab. Akali and BJP leaders have needlessly sparred over the Pathankot and Dinanagar terror strikes when both the BSF and the state police should share the blame.

Coalition management is a necessary but elusive strength. The way BJP leaders treat allies in Delhi, Akali leaders do the same in Chandigarh. Leave aside district-level functionaries, senior BJP leaders too feel sidelined, wondering if it is their own government. But the BJP-Badals marriage will survive since there is no serious clash of interest. The BJP has an urban base and the Akali Dal survives on rural vote. Both share liabilities too: anti-incumbency, financial mismanagement, drug problem, unemployment, peasant unrest, incidents of sacrilege and police excesses. That makes the two swim or sink together. They will avoid a divorce because of the greed for power, fear of losing elections, and absence of alternatives to counter a rising AAP and an aggressive challenge from Capt Amarinder Singh.