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Will numbers 1 to 8 in the BJP pull together so that it is a strong and formidable BJP which makes for a BJP-led NDA and not an NDA where the multiple docked tails are wagging the dog, asks Radha Rajan
Is the National Democratic Alliance Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA or is the BJP's stature the same as the one-state regional parties which constitute the NDA?
Just look at the components -- Akalis only in Punjab, the Janata Dal-United only in Bihar, the Shiv Sena only in Maharashtra, the Biju Janata Dal, former constituent of NDA confined to Odisha, and the will-she-won't-she Jayalalithaa only in Tamil Nadu.
The BJP, which is ruling more states than all these put together, can yet be bullied to silence by any one of them singly.
The BJP does not lead the NDA; it has allowed itself to be diminished by pretentious bullies with delusions of wannabe PM grandeur.
That being so, the BJP began to come unstuck at the seams when Sushma Swaraj announced Kalam as NDA choice for President two months ago. Sharad Yadav sneezed and the BJP developed cold feet.
Did anyone from the BJP speak to Kalam before Swaraj went public?
Once the process gathered steam and the Congress doing no better within the UPA than the BJP in the NDA, hiccuped their way to Pranab Mukherjee who anyone who watches politics closely knows is NOT Sonia's man. Not by a long shot.
Surely that was Pranab Mukherjee's USP and the BJP should have danced a jig. But the NDA's bungling was just beginning.
Advani declared that the NDA will not allow Sonia Gandhi to have a cakewalk and that the NDA will contest the UPA's choice.
Was this just Advani, typical of him, making a unilateral declaration without consulting his equals in the NDA? Or had the NDA met previously, much before the UPA announced its candidate and had firmed up their position that no matter who was the UPA choice, the NDA will contest it?
If that were so then the NDA should already have readied their candidate without going shopping for President from mall to mall after the UPA announced their candidate.
Or is it that the BJP has something personal against Pranab Mukherjee like Mamata Bannerjee?
After a long long time we have a religious Hindu who is also a competent politician. Sonia Gandhi had tainted every high office with either corrupt Hindus or with politics of minority-ism.
Pranab Mukherjee was not her first or even second choice. Pranab was a fortunate accident. The BJP should have quietly rejoiced and swiftly backed Mukherjee for President. The Akali Dal and Shiv Sena showed remarkable political sense in comparison.
By latching on to Kalam and announcing a contest for which they had neither a candidate nor the numbers, Advani as usual did two things -- he reduced a solemn exercise to tokenism and tainted the Rashtrapati Bhavan too with the TINA syndrome. We, the BJP, have no one else -- there is no alternative to Kalam.
Advani has tied up the BJP in knots yet again. This keeps happening again and again only because Nitin Gadkari is willing to play second fiddle to Advani and Co. Will numbers 1 to 8 in the BJP pull together so that it is a strong and formidable BJP which makes for a BJP-led NDA and not an NDA where the multiple docked tails are wagging the dog?
The BJP has egg on its face and Advani it was who threw the eggs.
Silly people singing the Kalam song and mounting an anti-Pranab Mukherjee campaign must tell me where they were when Pratibha Patil was Sonia's choice?