Road to 2024: BJP’s open doors to Congress rebels, and where they lead

The three were inducted with fanfare by the BJP amid the political swirl in Karnataka where the party’s struggles are exemplified by the series of leaders who have left it for other parties. Plus, the desertions further underline the Congress’s apparent irrelevance on the one hand, and the BJP’s rising clout on the other, ahead of elections this year where the two parties are the main rivals — including Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, apart from Karnataka.

The fact that even Congress leaders in the south are finding the BJP attractive — despite the party being largely on the margins in the region still — is the icing on the cake.

The BJP shed any remaining inhibitions towards bringing in people from outside the party some time back. Since the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah era began, it has welcomed many leaders with fame — and name — with open arms.

This is also part of the BJP’s efforts to expand its reach beyond the Hindi heartland it was once associated with. In October 2014, a few months after the party stormed to power under Modi, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat — in his Vijayadashami address that gives a glimpse into the Sangh Parivar’s changing stance and forthcoming programmes — had invoked a number of national heroes outside its familiar pantheon of idols and from across all sections of society.

As the Sangh has gone about appropriating these lesser-known heroes, belonging to different regions and groups, the BJP has been simultaneously inducting political faces from different parties.

In 2015, the BJP celebrated the 113th birth anniversary of K Kamaraj, the former Congress president still revered in Tamil Nadu but not so much in the Congress after a fallout with Indira Gandhi.

These measures have been typically coordinated, coinciding with coming polls or aligning with regions where the BJP is hoping to make inroads or sees a vacuum.

The gamble has paid off impressively for the party. Congress import Himanta Biswa Sarma is not only the BJP’s Assam Chief Minister but the man driving the party’s rapid rise in the entire Northeast. In West Bengal, Suvendu Adhikari, a former aide of Mamata Banerjee, has proved effective as the BJP face as it leaves the Left and Congress behind to emerge as the No. 2 in the state. Jitin Prasada, the son of late Congress heavyweight Jitendra Prasada, is leading the BJP’s Brahmin outreach in Uttar Pradesh, along with former BSP leader Brajesh Pathak. In Madhya Pradesh, the former Congress star Jyotraditya Scindia is being talked about as the next face of the BJP after Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

Like Prasada and Scindia, and Anil Antony, the BJP has not let its self-declared antipathy for “parivarwaad” come in the way of such inductions. If its Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai is the son of former chief minister and Janata Dal leader S R Bommai, its Punjab face Sunil Jakhar is the son of former Congress leader Balram Jakhar, while in Haryana, it has Kuldeep Bishnoi, the son of former Congress chief minister Bhajan Lal.

Among the latest inductions, the BJP hopes Kiran Reddy, who was Andhra CM from November 2010 to 2014, will give it a foothold in the state, where Jagan Mohan Reddy-led YSRCP, a party friendly towards the BJP, dominates the political scene.

Kiran Reddy’s last individual venture, the Samaikhyandra Party he floated, had faced a humiliating defeat in the 2014 state elections, failing to secure deposits even in a single constituency. But, as a BJP leader familiar with Andhra politics pointed out: “Kiran Reddy’s joining the BJP is symbolic. When the BJP is trying to emerge as an alternative, such known names help our cause. The inductions do not always bring votes, but perception matters.”

In Anil Antony’s case too, it’s perception that the BJP has its eyes on. Kerala’s demographic, with its huge minority population, is such that polarisation on the basis of one caste or religious community for electoral advantage is almost impossible, and so the BJP has been trying to rope in small parties and groups to build its base. With its attempts to put together a coalition including the Bharat Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS) that represents the influential Ezhava community, not paying much dividend, it has been eyeing the Christian community which forms 18.38% of the state’s population.

The induction of Anil Antony coincides with Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself reaching out to Christians, including with his significant Easter appearance at the historic Sacred Heart Cathedral in Delhi.

Earlier, the BJP had brought in K J Alphons, the former bureaucrat who was also made a minister at the Centre, and ex-Congress spokesperson Tom Vadakkan, with an eye on the Kerala Christian vote, though without much success.

Unlike Alphons and Vadakkan, Anil brings the advantage of his father’s name, known nationally for his long stint at the Centre, including as Union Defence Minister, and well-respected among the state’s Christian community despite being a self proclaimed atheist. The senior Antony is also acknowledged even by rivals for his honesty and clean image.

Welcoming Anil into the party, Union Minister V Muraleedharan, former Kerala BJP president, stressed that Anil is a “practising Christian” and that his entry into the party was a befitting reply to those who accuse the BJP of being a party that has only Hindus.

In this gambit of inducting big names to bolster its electoral prospects, the BJP has also faced a few setbacks. Most prominently in West Bengal, where former Mamata No. 2 Mukul Roy returned to the Trinamool Congress.

While detractors will be quick to strike back should the latest inductions fail, the short-term goal was taking eyes off Karnataka, where BJP leaders who have left to join the Congress include former MLAs Nanjundaswamy, Manohar Ainapur, N Y Gopalakrishna and Baburao Chinchansur.

Plus, as the party releases its first list Monday, more may join the exit queue.