Week after BJP’s bypoll defeats, Amit Shah to meet Uddhav Thackeray, Parkash Singh Badal

Shah’s decision to meet the allies of the BJP-led NDA comes around a week after the ruling party’s by-election defeats across states, and amid deteriorating relations with its allies. The Opposition won 11 of the 14 Assembly and Lok Sabha seats, including Kairana parliamentary constituency in Uttar Pradesh, in the May 28 bypolls. Political observers say the bypoll results, as well as the Opposition unity exhibited in Karnataka, made the BJP decide to mend its ties with its allies.

Wednesday’s meeting assumes significance as Thackeray’s Shiv Sena had put up a candidate against the BJP in Maharashtra’s Palghar Lok Sabha seat. The BJP won the seat, mainly due to division of votes in a four-cornered contest. There was speculation that if the BJP was defeated in the bypoll, Sena would withdraw its support to the Devendra Fadnavis-led government. Shah had gone to Matoshree and held talks with Thackeray last June, ahead of presidential elections, to seek his party’s votes for party nominee Ram Nath Kovind.

BJP leaders admitted that the alliance with the Shiv Sena is key to the party’s strategy ahead of Lok Sabha polls next year. Neither Shah nor any senior leader of the party publicly comment against the Sena or its leader, despite vehement public criticism of the Narendra Modi government by the latter. “It is not surprising that the BJP president is meeting its ally leader Thackeray. For any ruling party, by-elections give tips to prepare its future strategy ahead of the big electoral test,” said a BJP leader.

The by-election defeats have also prompted the BJP to start working on improving ties with its allies in Bihar. The NDA is likely to hold its first meeting on Thursday since Nitish Kumar and his JD(U) broke ties with Lalu Prasad’s RJD and returned to the coalition. The BJP-JD(U) alliance faced a setback when RJD won the Jokihat Assembly seat in the by-election. Other allies of the BJP in Bihar —Ram Vilas Paswan’s LJP and Upendra Kushwaha’s RLSP —had also expressed unhappiness over the BJP’s handling of the coalition. BJP leaders publicly agreed that Kumar would remain the CM face in the next Assembly elections. Shah met Paswan in the national capital on Sunday.

“The impression that the BJP has been ignoring or sidelining its allies is not something the party can afford now, when every seat is important for the party to return to power. Especially when Opposition parties are getting together to defeat us,” said a party leader from Bihar. A meeting of all the allies would send the “right message”, he said.

The BJP lost a key ally in the south when the TDP, ruling Andhra Pradesh, quit the NDA in March. Sources said that SAD had also expressed displeasure at the BJP’s coalition management. After TDP’s exit, SAD leader and Rajya Sabha member Naresh Gujral had said that the BJP should practice coalition dharma.