Regional parties are giving conflicting signals to the main Opposition Congress and the ruling BJP, suggesting that their priority is to keep their space in the states intact rather than take ideological positions. This was seen in the first part of the Budget Session of Parliament which gave over on Thursday.
While the Congress, Left, JD(U) and DMK remained intact against the government, the AIADMK, BJD, Trinamul Congress, Samajwadi Party, BSP and NCP took a line convenient to them. And the AAP has become the common target of the BJP and the Congress.
The AIADMK and the BJD have been consistent in maintaining distance from the Congress ever since the NDA came to power at the Centre in 2014, but the Jayalalithaa-led party is opposing the GST Bill. On the other hand, the BJD remained with the Opposition on the Aadhaar bill for some time.
The Samajwadi Party and the BSP, which had backed the Manmohan Singh government for nearly 10 years unconditionally — from 2004 to 2014 — are not bitter towards the Narendra Modi government except on issues of OBCs. Although they support the GST Bill, their priority is to protect their space in Uttar Pradesh and check the BJP and Congress from making inroads into their support base.
The Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamul Congress is distancing itself from the Sonia Gandhi-led party after remaining with it in Parliament for nearly two years. The Congress’ growing proximity to the Left could push the Trinamul towards the BJP after the Assembly elections.
The NCP, which is supporting the GST Bill and Aadhaar, wants to cooperate with the Centre on national and developmental issues, but in Maharashtra it is against the BJP-led government.
The Shiv Sena might be the oldest ideological ally of the BJP, but the latter cannot take the support of the Uddhav Thackeray-led party for granted because it had fought the Bihar Assembly polls against the NDA and had earlier backed Congress-supported nominees in the last two [presidential elections.
The TDP, LJP, RSLP and Apna Dal, which are with the BJP in the NDA, cannot be seen as its ideological allies.
