The great BJP poaching plan: If you can't beat them, get them to join the party

A power-hungry Bharatiya Janata Party’s strategy of poaching strong candidates from rival parties has been yielding it rich dividends.

After applying the formula successfully in the recently concluded state polls in Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Goa and the civic polls in Maharashtra, the saffron party has now set its sights on Delhi and Odisha. The BJP leadership believes the ruling parties here are vulnerable and ripe for the picking.

Capital gains

The strategy was seen in motion in Delhi last week, when MLA Ved Parkash from the ruling Aam Admi Party joined the BJP, just a month ahead of the municipal council elections in the capital city. Party insiders said several more AAP legislators are in touch with the saffron party and the possibility of more defections could not be ruled out.

The BJP zeroed in on the AAP after the party’s high-decibel campaign in Punjab failed to dethrone the Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP government in the recent assembly elections. Though the party did not perform badly in the state – winning 20 seats to emerge the largest Opposition party – it fared far below its expectations. Ahead of the results last month, AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal had practically declared victory in the state. Another state where the AAP had run an energetic campaign and expected high returns was Goa, but here it faced a rout, failing to win a single seat.

Realising that the AAP’s ambitions to make significant inroads beyond Delhi had hit a roadblock, the BJP swung into action. On the one hand, it is sending out feelers to Kejriwal’s legislators while on the other, BJP President Amit Shah is going all out to ensure that the AAP loses the Municipal Corporation of Delhi elections. A defeat or a poor performance in the local elections will be another setback to Kejriwal, whose party had scored a surprise landslide victory in the Delhi assembly elections in 2015.

The BJP is also hoping that the AAP will be weakened further if the Election Commission confirms the suspension of 21 of its legislators for holding an office of profit against the rules. The Election Commission completed its hearing in the case on Monday but has reserved its order in the case. The controversy dates back to 2015, when these 21 MLAs were appointed as parliamentary secretaries, said to be an office of profit, to Delhi government ministers.

If these MLAs are disqualified, fresh elections will have to be held for these seats, which the BJP believes that the AAP will not be able to retain.

The party’s game plan is weaken the AAP by year end so that it does not have the requisite numbers in the Assembly to stake claim to the three Rajya Sabha from Delhi seats that fall vacant next January. The AAP holds 65 seats in the 70-member Assembly and could win all three seats, presently held by Congress members Janardan Dwivedi, Karan Singh and Parvez Hashmi. Any reduction in their seats will hurt the party’s chances.

However, the BJP has to tread carefully. If the saffron party overplays its hand and rushes to induct AAP legislators, it could strengthen Kejriwal by giving him the opportunity to play victim.

A BJP leader who did not wish to be identified admitted that a number of AAP legislators were waiting to jump ship but the saffron party had to go slow as it could not be seen to be engineering defections. “We have to protect our reputation,” he said.

Mission Odisha

Alongside Delhi, the BJP has also set its eyes on Odisha, where its remarkable performance in the recent municipal elections saw it displace the Congress to become the main Opposition party against the Biju Janata Dal. Shah is convinced that the BJP can build on this in the 2019 Assembly polls in the state and possibly even displace the four-term Biju Janata Dal government. In keeping with its focus on the state, the BJP has picked Odisha as the venue for its forthcoming national executive meeting on April 15 and 16.

It is no coincidence that the BJP’s rise in Odisha has been followed by an internal feud in Naveen Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal. Through a series of tweets on Monday, senior Biju Janata Dal leader Tathagata Sathpahy accused the BJP of trying to create fissures in the party and enforce a split. Satpathy indicated that it was doing so with the help of a party MP (whom he did not name). Biju Janata Dal’s Lok Sabha MP Jay Panda hit back through an article in an Odisha daily in which he raised questions about Patnaik’s leadership and called for an introspection. “Other parties are gaining ground because of their dynamic leadership, and unless the BJD’s [Biju Janata Dal] founder urgently deals with the issues outlined above, the party will struggle to face these challenges,” Panda underlined.

In the coming months, besides strengthening the party in Odisha, the BJP will not be averse to inducting Biju Janata Dal members who could prove assets for the saffron outfit in the future. Amit Shah’s efforts to this end are expected to pick up speed following reports that Odisha chief minister Patnaik is not well and may be travelling to the US for treatment.