After forming alliances in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, BJP eyes Kerala and Andhra Pradesh

File image of BJP President Amit Shah, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis

After a tough contest and subsequent loss to Congress during the assembly polls in the Hindi heartlands, the BJP is tied between retaining its seats in the west and making inroads into newer territories, particularly down South. This has prompted the saffron party to seal alliances with existing as well as new partners.

Sources within the BJP, taking cognizance of a “tight contest against a united Opposition in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar", have told Hindustan Times, “We ceded space to allies such as the Janata Dal (United), buried differences with the Shiv Sena and kept our ambitions under check in Tamil Nadu to forge alliances that can help us return to power.”

The BJP’s Kerala unit is reportedly in talks with the Bharatiya Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS), an outfit with a considerable influence on OBC Ezhava community. The source told the publication that the BDJS want about “half a dozen seats” and that “discussions are on”. The BJP will reportedly support a couple of Independent candidates in the state as well.

Kerala has 20 parliamentary constituencies. The BJP had contested 18 seats in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, out of which they couldn’t even win one.

Meanwhile, the BJP continues to flirt with actor-politician Pawan Kalyan of the Jana Sena in Andhra Pradesh, but remains non-committal. Kalyan’s Jana Sena, which had once supported the TDP-BJP alliance but later had a fallout, has announced that it will go solo in the assembly elections, contesting all 175 seats.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Chandrababu Naidu led-Telugu Desam Party (TDP) had contested with the BJP as an alliance partner. Out of the total 25 parliamentary constituencies in Andhra Pradesh, the TDP had won 16 and the BJP had won a dismal three seats.

Earlier this week, the BJP sealed an alliance with AIADMK in Tamil Nadu for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections as well as 21 bypolls in the state. The AIADMK gave the party five seats out of a total of 39 parliamentary seats in the state.

The alliance in Maharashtra also comes at a political cost for the BJP as it had to concede almost equal status to the Shiv Sena in the assembly even after it won 122 seats in 2014 as compared to Sena’s 63.

With regional players giving tough competition to the BJP, the saffron party seems to be desperate to make its presence felt, even if it comes at the cost of the number of seats.