Smaller parties keen to piggyback on BJP in the Lok Sabha polls

Days before the first phase of polling for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is taking control of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) 's poll campaign in states like Uttar Pradesh.

To capitalise on the popularity of the Ram temple consecration ceremony in Ayodhya earlier this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a public meeting in Meerut on Sunday to start NDA's election campaign in Uttar Pradesh.

The choice of the constituency is interesting because the BJP has fielded a prominent television actor, Arun Govil, who played Lord Ram in the popular television series Ramayana. Govil was also present in Ayodhya during the consecration ceremony of the Ram temple in January earlier this year.

Senior BJP officials hope the popularity of the Ram temple, along with Modi's, will help the party overcome the challenge of the ongoing farmer protest in western Uttar Pradesh.

“This is the first of the many public meetings that will be organised for the PM. We are dividing the entire region of western Uttar Pradesh into small clusters of Lok Sabha seats comprising 4-5 constituencies to make a big impact,” Gajendra Sharma, spokesperson and in-charge of media for public meeting in Meerut, told

The Federal.

While the RLD leadership is pushing the BJP to start a dialogue with the protesting farmer organisations, the BJP leadership has stream-rolled the demand. It is confident that the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya and the popularity of PM Modi will help them sail through the challenge.

Regarding the ongoing farmer protest, RLD leaders believe that they will be able to convince the BJP leadership to agree to the farmers' demands after the Lok Sabha elections.

“We were part of the INDIA alliance earlier, but we became members of the NDA because an alliance with the BJP means a 100 percent guarantee of victory in the elections. We are sure that the RLD leadership will be able to convince the BJP to agree to the farmers' demands after the elections. Our leader, Jayant Singh, is already talking to the BJP leadership about it,” Mohammed Islam, senior leader of the RLD and national spokesperson of the party, told The Federal.

There is a sense of desperation among the RLD leaders, as the party has not managed to win a single Lok Sabha seat since the 2009 general elections.

Though Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav offered eight Lok Sabha seats to the RLD, Jayant Singh has agreed to take the two seats offered by the BJP as the party believes they have a better chance of winning with the NDA.

Going ahead with its plan to contest most of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, senior leaders of the BJP are trying to convince the smaller alliance partners that the BJP will contest in 75 constituencies. The BJP leadership has already announced the names of the candidates for 64 constituencies, and it plans to name at least 11 more constituencies.

Members of the BJP have categorically told the NDA members, Apna Dal (Sonelal) and Om Prakash Rajbhar, chief of Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSJ), that there will be no change in the seat-sharing arrangement and that NDA members will only get to contest in 1-2 Lok Sabha seats.

“The seat-sharing discussions are going on, and a final outcome will be announced soon. We have demanded 3-4 Lok Sabha seats because, for the past 10 years we have contested for 2 seats. So far, there is only agreement on one seat of Mirzapur. We are the oldest alliance member of the BJP in Uttar Pradesh. So many people came and went but we have remained with the BJP,” Dr. Sunil Patel, senior leader of Apna Dal (Sonelal) and Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA), told

The Federal.

The case is no different from Om Prakash Rajbhar, who has also demanded to contest at least three Lok Sabha seats in eastern Uttar Pradesh. However, the BJP leadership is only ready to offer him 1 Lok Sabha constituency. As a compromise to keep the NDA members content, Rajbhar was made a minister in the Uttar Pradesh government earlier this month.

Political analysts believe that the smaller parties depend on the BJP for their electoral and political relevance, and most of the alliance partners depend on the BJP leadership for Lok Sabha victory.

“This is called an alliance of convenience. It is not that NDA members are natural allies in terms of social or electoral base, but they have come together because most parties feel that if they are with the BJP, they have a better chance of winning. Most regional parties are dependent on the BJP for their electoral performance because they cannot win on their own, so they are trying to piggyback on the BJP to be on the winning side,” Ashutosh Kumar, Department of Political Science, Punjab University, told The Federal.