Eye on LS polls, BJP to cement ties with allies

Having swept the Assembly elections in three states, the BJP is getting ready for the big fight — the Lok Sabha polls. And the party, n...

Having swept the Assembly elections in three states, the BJP is getting ready for the big fight — the Lok Sabha polls. And the party, not one to leave anything to chance, is all set to tone up the NDA and has even initiated a massive exercise to cement its ties with its partners.

Things have not been all well in the NDA family and the BJP’s relations with two of its allies — DMK and Indian National Lok Dal of Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala — have been under a lot of strain of late.

The Shiromani Akali Dal too feels alienated from the BJP for what it considers lack of support at a time when its president Parkash Singh Badal and his son, Sukhbir Singh Badal, are incarcerated.

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Relations between the BJP and the DMK have soured due to several reasons — the state BJP’s antipathy to the anti-Hindutva rhetoric of the DMK, absence of hostility for Tamil Nadu CM J. Jayalalithaa in the national BJP leadership and enforcement of POTA.

However, the BJP leadership has made up its mind to hold on to Karunanidhi rather than move to Jayalalithaa’s side. A senior party leader explained: ‘‘DMK is a political party and is far more dependable than AIADMK. Therefore, we have no intention to dump it.’’ In keeping with this resolve, the BJP first promulgated an ordinace to check misuse of POTA. Then, the PM made a personal gesture by attending the funeral of Karunanidhi’s nephew Murasoli Maran.

To placate the Akalis, the BJP has made some quick moves. It deputed Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to visit the Badals in jail. In Delhi, BJP parliamentary party chief whip V.K. Malhotra said the party would join any agitation which the Akalis may launch against the ‘‘harassment of Badal’’ by the Amarinder Singh government.

At centre of hijab row, student decides to pull out of Kochi school

India1 hr ago

Amid the controversy over a student not being allowed to wear a hijab at a school in Kochi, the student has decided to pull out of the school. Kerala Education Minister V Sivankutty, who had previously called on the school to respect the student’s right to wear the hijab, said on Friday that the school was answerable to the government regarding the circumstances surrounding the girl’s decision.

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