Opposition Disunity: When will BJP make the most of it?

BJP needs one Pramod Mahajan and either Arun Jaitley or Venkaiah Naidu cannot replace him !

There are various factors which could be responsible for lack of floor coordination between the BJP and regional parties like Samajwadi Party and Trinamool Congress. One of them certainly is: BJP’s ambitious plans to establish “more than just toehold” in states like West Bengal, Odisha and Tamil Nadu. This would keep the saffron outfit in direct confrontation between it and other regional parties led by the likes of Mamata Banerjee, Naveen Patnaik and J Jayalitha.

BJP could draw a solace that while it is already being considered a force to reckon with in some of these states, in Delhi especially in Rajya Sabha the coordination could remain far cry.

This argument was held valid when Mamata Banerjee identified Narendra Modi's BJP as one of her rivals for next year's assembly elections in 2016. Thus Mamata-Namo bonhomie sought in Bangladesh has reasons to fail. 

Besides these political realities another major reason attributed to ineffective coordination between the BJP and state-level parties is the BJP leaders' arrogance. 

None other than Shiv Sena leaders would endorse this easily. Sanjay Raut has gone vocal more than once that BJP leadership and especially the duo of Amit Shah and Narendra Modi treated allies with disrespect -- something perhaps unthinkable during the stint of Atal Behari Vajpayee.

In fact Vajpayeeji had maintained high respect to the coalition dharma and gave up Speaker's post to TDP and later to Sena (Manohor Joshi after Balayogi died in air crash). This tradition was continued even later and when BJP lost power in 2004, the deputy Speaker of Lok Sabha was passed onto the Akali Dal.

"You have majority.....God willing this majority should remain. But we are happy that the government has realised that they need the support of all allies," Sena spokesman and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut said on the eve of monsoon session on July 20.

Some of these issues were raised during NDA meeting on July 20 NDA meeting - first time since May 2014 - at Prime Minister's official residence.

Blind admirers: Can't be Good Floor managers

Even regional party sources say : there has been absence of personal rapport with top BJP leaders, again something unlike Pramod Mahajan days - as the late BJP leader even shared good personal relationship with communists and Congressmen. Senior Congress leader Santosh Mohan Dev jokingly used to call Pramod Mahajan - 'Entertainment Merchant'. But Mahajan's successors perhaps in other qualities like Arun Jaitley simply have failed to establish such bond.

"Jaitley is too high flying.....Good English debating ability is one virtue he has. But he does not have other qualities of Pramod Mahajan," says a JD(U) leader. 

Some say the sheer mismanagement in running both the Houses or failure of BJP floor managers could be easily gauged from the fact that they seem to face bigger hurdles than the Congress at a time when BJP has 282 members in Lok Sabha while Congress had hardly 205 during UPA-2 and much lesser numbers in UPA-1.

Trinamool sources insist despite Narendra Modi's time to time 'outreach approach' - nothing much moved substantially. "They remain the same BJP, they remain the same arrogant and patronizing," is refrain of a few Trinamool leaders. 

This has been damaging, they say. 

But BJP leaders counter such stance saying the kind of importance given Prime Minister Modi to Mamata Banerjee during a foreign visit in Bangladesh is unparallel.

"No Prime Minister would have given a chief minister so much importance and respect as Modi did to Mamata during Bangladesh trip,” one Minister said.

Mayawati of BSP, which has 10 members in Upper House, has also maintained while it is opposed to Land Bill, it was still ready for certain reconciliation vis-a-vis demand for ouster of Sushma Swaraj from the ministry. But BSP sources said "no one from government or BJP has approached our party to assist them." 

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