Modi BJP liability: Congress

[1]

Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi might be an asset for the BJP in the state but outside he is becoming a liability, felt the Congress against the backdrop of strained relations between the BJP and the Janata Dal (United) ahead of the Bihar Assembly polls.

The Congress Party is closely watching developments in the BJP-led NDA which is in two minds over whether to follow a hard line or a soft line which can be acceptable to secular parties fighting against the Congress at the state level or an NGO line. This means to build the party on the basis of developmental activities.
But after the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP is losing its partners one by one. While the INLD and the LJP, led by Mr Ram Vilas Paswan, quit the NDA before the elections, the Trinamul Congress, TDP, Biju Janata Dal, AGP, National Conference started distancing themselves from the BJP after that. The Janata Dal (S) led by H.D. Deve Gowda too had shared power with the BJP in Karnataka for some time like the BSP in UP. Now, the Trinamul Congress led by Ms Mamata Banerjee and the National Conference are part of the UPA at the Centre.
Of late, the JMM too left the NDA while the RLD is said to be in a double mind.
“The BJP has become a faceless party. It is trying to project a ‘face’ but is rejected by its allies,” said AICC general secretary B.K. Hariprasad on Saturday. He is also the in-charge for the party affairs in Gujarat.
According to the Congress insiders, Mr Modi’s model of development has not enthused his counterparts in Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka. The case of Chhattisgarh is totally different.
Mr Modi’s hard line did not work in Maharashtra when he was made the in-charge of the elections earlier. There the party has been depending on Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray and now sees MNS chief Raj Thackeray as its future ally.
Meanwhile, Union food processing minister Subodh Kant Sahay described Mr Modi and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar as the two faces of the same coin.
The BJP is planning to put the Congress-led UPA government in the dock on the escape of Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson during Monsoon Session of Parliament next month but developments in Bihar may damage it further.