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While the Opposition parties are going to hold their second meeting in Bengaluru during July 17-18, the ruling BJP has also invited its old and new allies for a meeting of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to be held in Delhi on July 18. Sources said 19 parties have confirmed their participation in the NDA meet so far.
BJP national president J P Nadda has sent letters to the NDA allies — including newer ones like the Ajit Pawar-led NCP faction and Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha — inviting them for the July 18 conclave.
Although the NDA meet is being held just two days before the beginning of Parliament’s monsoon session, it is not meant for floor coordination during the session and would rather discuss better coordination among the NDA allies in the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, sources said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also be present at the NDA meeting, seen as the BJP’s bid to display the ruling coalition’s show of strength. This is for the first time during the second term of the Modi government that an NDA meeting of this scale is taking place.
With the Opposition parties closing their ranks to fight the BJP in the 2024 polls, the saffron party has returned to kickstart talks with its erstwhile allies and firm up ties with its existing partners in a bid to breathe a new life into the NDA.
Besides the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, the NDA allies participating in the meeting include a number of smaller parties from Bihar as well as several ruling allies from the Northeast region. They include the Chirag Paswan-led LJP (Ram Vilas), Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Samta Party, Sanjay Nishad’s Nishad Party (all from Bihar), Anupriya Patel-led Apna Dal (Sonelal), JJP from Haryana, Pawan Kalyan-led Janasena from Andhra Pradesh, AIADMK, Tamil Maanila Congress and Indiya Makkal Kalvi Munnetra Kazhagam (all from Tamil Nadu), All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) from Jharkhand, Conrad Sangma’s NCP from Meghalaya, NDPP from Nagaland, SKF from Sikkim, Zoramthanga’s Mizo National Front, and the AGP from Assam.
Om Prakash Rajbhar, president of Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP), a possible ally of the BJP in UP, said he has not received any letter so far from Nadda to join the NDA meeting.
It was also not clear whether the BJP is extending the invitation to the Chandrababu Naidu-led TDP and the Sukhbir Badal-headed Shiromani Akali Dal — its two erstwhile coalition partners — with whom the party is holding backroom negotiations for exploring the possibility of an alliance or seat-adjustment for the 2024 polls. Sources in both the TDP and the SAD said they have not received any invite for the NDA meet till Saturday evening.
Sources said there has been a change in the BJP’s approach to the allies this time. Chirag Paswan was visited by Union Minister Nityanand Rai with Nadda’s invitation letter. Rai met Chirag Friday night for the second time in a week. Nadda described the LJP as a key constituent of the NDA and a partner in the Modi-led government’s push for the development and welfare of the poor.
“Under the NDA government there have been many steps for the welfare of the poor, restoration of cultural pride, economic development, national security and for pitching India as a solid credible force among the global nations,” Nadda’s letter stated, adding that the Modi government was moving ahead with Bharat Vision-2047.
The BJP’s outreach to Chirag has come more than a year after his family was evicted by the central government from the official bungalow, 12 Janpath, of his late father Ram Vilas Paswan, a Dalit stalwart leader from Bihar and key NDA ally. Chirag had termed the eviction as a “humiliation”. The family’s attempt to halt it legally had also failed.
With its former ally Nitish Kumar, the Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) supremo, having walked out of the NDA in August last year, for the second time, the BJP initiated attempts to get Chirag on board as part of its efforts to plug its gaps in some key states and rejuvenate its NDA coalition for the 2024 polls.
Interestingly, Chirag had kept on supporting the BJP in its decisions despite being out of the NDA. The BJP had extended an invitation to him to an NDA floor leaders meeting in January 2021 ahead of the budget session, but had to drop it due to protests from its then ally JD (U).
Chirag had walked out of the NDA alliance in Bihar during the 2020 Assembly polls to campaign against Nitish. While a split in the LJP carried out by his uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras, now a Union minister, weakened him, Chirag is said to have succeeded in retaining the party’s core support base, signalling to the BJP his salience in a state where it faces a formidable challenge from the Mahagathbandhan of the JD(U), RJD, Congress and the Left.
