While the Congress is fight ing these elections in an al liance the BJP too has tied up with other NDA part ners. However the irony is that while the I.N.D.IA bloc allies seem to be hold ing their own, the feedback is not as sanguine for BJP’s allies. The election began Nitish Kumar doing one of his U Turns and tying up with the BJP. This seems to have lost the JD(U) some credibility with its voters, judging by the mood on the ground. This was followed by the JD(S) embroiled in the Ravenna controversy which put the party on the backfoot. Judging by feed back the Eknath Shinde faction of the Sena is losing out in sympathy votes to the Uddhav Thackeray faction, while Ajit Pawar is giving senior Pawar a tough fight. But he is only fighting on 4 seats. In fact, if you look at the BJP’s main allies, it is only Chandrababu Naidu that is slated to bring in a sizable chunk of seats to the NDA’s kitty. On the other hand, the Congress party’s allies seem to be holding their own, whether it is DMK in Tamil Nadu, Mamata Bannerjee in West Bengal to Tejashwi Yadav in Bihar. Even Akhilesh Yadav in Ut tar Pradesh seems on a comeback trail and while the BJP will not be dislodged in the state the SP could well improve its numbers with a sizable chunk. It is the SP that is the mainstay of the Congress-SP alliance. As a statutory warning one must add that these are impressions on ground rather than any exit or opin ion polls figures. Now if you look at the two national parties, while the estimated seats for the BJP vary from 300 paar to as low as 230-240, everyone agrees on one thing – that is the BJP will be the single largest party. There is no way that the Congress can bridge this gap. Any claim of the I.N.D.I.A bloc wresting power from the BJP has the allies playing a huge role. The BJP on the other hand, remains more or less, self sufficient, and indeed with the exception of Chandrababu Naidu, there is no other ally it can really count on to shore its numbers. With barely a week to go before the polling ends, this is just another interesting factoid in what has been a very intriguing election process.
