REVVING UP FOR ELECTIONS

HOW THE BJP LEADERSHIP IS IRONING OUT GLITCHES IN THE STATES GOING TO POLLS WHILE ALSO GEARING UP FOR MISSION 2024

- ANILESH S. MAHAJAN

The clangour in the background—the awful sound of an alliance breaking, the footfalls of central sleuths—spoke of a battle of attrition. Not exactly tense, but taut with action, and without a lot of room for missteps. Nitish Kumar, Bihar chief minister and Janata Dal (United) chief, had just gone back to a friend-turned-foe-turned-friend. And CBI teams, playing in perfect time like a crack percussion section, had descended on the premises of five Rashtriya Janata Dal leaders, including two Rajya Sabha MPs.

This is a fairly accurate freeze-frame of the state of play as the BJP primes for the 2024 polls. A curious dichotomy attends to the situation: the big picture seems comfortable enough, with the Opposition taking the field in a state of disarray, but the details hold not a few devils for the ruling party. Some crucial NDA alliances from 2019—the JD(U) in Bihar and the Akali Dal in Punjab—no longer hold; others, such as the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra and AIADMK in Tamil Nadu, are depleted. In Maharashtra, the faction headed by new CM Eknath Shinde has formed a government with the BJP but is in a legal tangle with the Thackeray group over control of the party and its symbol. And in Tamil Nadu, the AIADMK is a shadow of its former self after the assembly election defeat and factional battles.