BJP leadership crisis giving upper hand to Cong: Sardesai

Rajdeep Sardesai, editor-in-chief, CNN-IBN, says that BJP's political strategy has clearly failed on the floor of the House. Unless the internal crisis with the BJP is resolved, it will give Congress a bit of breathing space.

Also read: Mayawati magic: Nifty gets boost, experts now eye 6000-6100 Below is the edited transcript of his interview to CNBC-TV18.  Q: Is the BJP likely to get more cussed in its opposition to all the other FDI related reforms or is it going to say we have lost face, we have been embarrassed, we have been out maneuvered, lets pull back?
A: BJP's political strategy has clearly failed on the floor of the House. The BJP was hoping that at least Mayawati or Mulayam would strike at this moment, but they misread the mood in terms of the fact that neither wanted to embarrass the government to the point where the government was perhaps pushed into a situation where you could force an early election.
Certainly, Mayawati doesn't want that situation. So, the BJP miscalculated. Internally, the BJPs is facing bigger problem. They need to resolve their leadership struggle and that will only happen post Gujarat elections. Until that leadership struggle is resolved, until we know whether Nitin Gadkari is going to stay on, who is going to succeed him, I think the BJP will give the Congress a bit of breathing space.
This breathing space can be used by the Congress. Next week, Lokpal Bill may be introduced in Parliament and another attempt are being made to try and evolve a consensus on that as well. So, the government does have a window of opportunity, it's a shrinking window of opportunity. I don't know how much longer it can last. I believe it can go maximum till the monsoon session of Parliament. Beyond that, I wouldn't be surprised if the Congress itself takes advantage of the disarray in which the BJP finds itself and decides to call a winter election in 2013.