From smaller parties to bigger fish, a look at BJP's alliance troubles in 2018

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP national president Amit Shah

This year has been the year of turmoil for the Bharatiya Janata Party – it lost assembly elections in Hindi heartlands recently, which has apparently dented the saffron party's prospects in the upcoming general election; and it also lost or is locked in a battle with several of its allies, both big and small.

Those that left 

The year started off with the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), led by Andhra Pradesh satrap N Chandrababu Naidu, pulling out of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in March. Consequentially, two ministers of the Union Cabinet – P Ashok Gajapati Raju and Y S Chowdary – resigned owing their allegiance to the TDP.

The reason given by the TDP was the Center's refusal to grant special category status to Andhra, an emotive issue in the state where regional political parties were cornering Naidu over his inability to take action on the request.

Following this, in June, the BJP walked out of its alliance with Mehbooba Mufti-led People's Democratic Party (PDP) in Jammu and Kashmir, triggering a fall in the state government. Tensions between the two parties were already simmering, with both the parties taking opposite stances on key issues, and the last straw reportedly was the suspension of operations by security forces in J&K, which the BJP wanted to revoke and the PDP wanted continued.

Apart from troubles in the south and the north, the BJP had already been facing trouble in the west– Maharashtra-based farmer leader Raju Shetty's Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghtana (SSS) had pulled out of the NDA in 2017 citing the Modi government's non-fulfillment of promises, particularly towards farmers.

The state where the BJP has faced most flip-flops has been Bihar: former Chief Minister Jiten Ram Manjhi's Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) quit the alliance in February, citing disagreement on seat-sharing and went on to join the Grand Alliance. The Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP), led by Upendra Kushwaha, followed the exact same pattern, with the party quitting NDA on December 10 and Kushwaha resigning as the Minister of State (MoS) for Human Resource Development (HRD).

Those that are left, but bickering:

The Narendra Modi-Amit Shah duo has been simultaneously tackling big and small parties which have been sulking for different reasons.

The Shiv Sena in Maharashtra has been targetting the BJP government over various issues, including demonetisation and the saffron party's inability to come to a conclusion on the Ram Mandir issue. Meanwhile, Ram Vilas Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) and Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (United) have been pressurising the BJP for more seat-share.

In Uttar Pradesh, too, the BJP has been facing heat from the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) led by Omprakash Rajbhar and Apna Dal (AD), both the parties having embarrassed the government at various points this year. SBSP, in fact, has been called "necessary evil" by the BJP. AD's senior leader Anupriya Patel is MoS for health and has asked the BJP not to ignore its smaller partners in the NDA.

In Assam, the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) had recently said that it will pull out of the NDA after BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma slammed the saffron party over its opposition to the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill.

In Goa, which has been facing political uncertainty due to its Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar's ill health, the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), an NDA ally has been voicing its discontent over the prevailing conditions in the state. Similarly, in Kerala, the Bharath Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS) too has been bickering with the BJP over state-specific issues.

Reports have indicated that the BJP has started course correction, and the party is in process of wooing more allies, "especially in south India and eastern India", as per an NDTV report.

The party also hopes to do better in the Northeast, where its foothold seems to be getting stronger, as well as in West Bengal and Odisha, in order to compensate for the losses it expects to face in the Hindi heartland.