Call one, call all: Smug BJP reaches out for friends

The BJP, however, would appear to be non-committal. ‘‘Let us see what happens,’’ was all general secretary Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi would say.

Shukla faces no such compunctions though. The BJP is the ruling party in his home state, Chhattisgarh, and since the NCP under his leadership has failed to make much impact during the last Assembly polls, he faces the prospect of isolation if he does not join the BJP or Congress. Sources said the BJP has offered him a Lok Sabha ticket from Raipur, Mahasammund or Rajnandgaon. Unlike Sangma, BJP would not take him as an ally but is eyeing his upper-caste vote bank.

In UP, the BJP is waiting for the Congress-BSP dealings to fall through. Naqvi and BJP spokesman Prakesh Javadekar, who called on Mayawati, sought to convey the impression that a seat adjustment between BJP and BSP was still possible. The duo, when asked if a tie-up with BSP was possible, said they would not rule out ‘‘any possibility’’.

Sources in the BJP said the two leaders gathered from their discussion with Mayawati that she was unlikely to have a tie-up with Congress. The last BSP-Congress alliance had benefited only the latter — the party gained her Dalit vote but had failed to transfer its own votes to her. ‘‘In your case, at least some of your votes had shifted to me,’’ she reportedly told Naqvi, adding that Mulayam Singh Yadav had acquired the image of somebody who was in league with the BJP.