Allies give BJP tough time

NEW DELHI: The Sangh Parivar isn''t the only one giving the BJP a hard time since it lost the general election two months ago. The party finds itself under attack by at least four of its major NDA allies, with differences ranging from ideology, to sharing of river waters, to personality clashes.
If the TDP and Janata Dal (United) worry that the BJP may revert to its Hindutva agenda, making it untenable for them to remain in the NDA, the Shiv Sena feels that the BJP doesn''t consult it enough on NDA decisions.The Sena, BJP''s closest ideological ally, thinks that the run-up to the assembly elections in Maharashtra is a good time to express its dissatisfaction.
In Punjab, the Akali Dal continues to back chief minister Amarinder Singh''s controversial decision to cancel of the SYL agreement, despite being dissuaded by the BJP leadership to do so.
TDP fears that if the BJP goes "back to basics", it would find it difficult to recapture its Muslim constituency. The party was trounced by the Congress in the recent Lok Sabha polls; simultaneously, it lost Andhra Pradesh in the assembly elections.
For JD(U), headed for assembly elections in Bihar and Jharkhand in early 2005, the recent General Election was a wake-up call. The party found itself marginalised by the RJD-led combine and Congress-led combine in Bihar and Jharkhand, respectively. At the just-concluded JD(U) national executive, senior party leader Digvijay Singh said: "If the BJP returns to the old agenda, then we will not be with them. There cannot be any two opinions on this."
The political resolution clearly stated that secularism was JD(U)''s strength. "We shall stick to secularism and oppose fundamentalism," he said, adding that slogans based on religion had failed in the country.
As for the Shiv Sena, it won''t take BJP''s indifferent attitude lying down. Last month, when the BJP didn''t consult the Sena before announcing that the NDA would back Congress''s K Rehman Khan for Rajya Sabha deputy chairperson, the party, to get even with BJP, announced it would field Eknath Thakur for the job.