“I have come to learn how Pramodji (Mahajan) managed the BJP-Sena alliance for so many years,” Gujarat CMNarendraModi said as he took his place at a campaign committee meeting for Maharashtra BJP. This was his first state-level meeting after taking over as chief of his party’s campaign committee.
Former state BJP chief Sudhir Munganti war reacted to this by asking what could a CM elected thrice in succession to lead Gujarat “learn from us, who have lost elections three times”. Modi, however, clearly knew what he was asking for, uttering a series of figures collated from the booth level to show how much of a junior partner BJP was in Maharashtra. “Modiji was concerned that in several thousand booths where BJP contested, Sena held sway,” said a source. The number of booths where Sena dominated over BJP was as high as 21,321 in 76 assembly seats which BJP won, while the party’s own presence was less than half of Sena’s own seats. MNS role as spoiler was also discussed, with the committee being told that about five LS seats were lost because of MNS in the last polls.
Professor Suhas Palshikar of Pune University says Modi’s worries were justified, but there was precious little that the party could do under the circumstances. “A few years ago they raised the banner of going it alone, with the slogan 100% BJP. It was very apparent, very quickly, that it wouldn’t work,” he said. He says while a few pockets of popularity, for example in Marathwada, cultivated by Gopinath Munde exist, BJP’s influence is little and too diffused. The party fantasies a scenario where BJP, Sena and MNS fight on the same side, but that looks unlikely.
Sena is BJP’s oldest ally, and the alliance has survived many hiccups, including the death ofBal Thackeray and Pramod Mahajan. With new leaders at the helm, some changes might well see light.
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