The hug and shrug debate aside, the no-confidence motion had a specific political logic to it – reposition the BJP as a better alternative to the Congress for regional parties.How? The decision to let the Speaker admit the motion was itself a concession to the ‘regional spirit’ because the motion was being piloted by the Telugu Desam and other Andhra-based parties.This was a big shift from the last session, when Speaker Sumitra Mahajan had brazened it out despite considerable pressure. But this time, the BJP did not want to be seen directly posited against regional or federal parties.Prime Minister Narendra Modi ’s speech, thus, targeted the Congress but was soft and accommodating with regional leaders.Consider this:First, he attacked the credibility of the Congress as a potential partner in any effort for unity among ‘federal parties’.In response to Rahul Gandhi ’s ‘PM cant’-look-into-my-eye-and-talk-remark’, Modi read out a whole list of luminaries who lost out because they dared to talk eye-to-eye with the Nehru-Gandhi family.He darted back to Subhash Chandra Bose, B R Ambedkar and Vallabhbhai Patel, came down to former PMs Morarji Desai, Charan Singh and even former President Pranab Mukherjee. And after having laid the backdrop reached out to those who are somewhat relevant in the present context -- his predecessor Janata Dal (S) chief Deve Gowda, Mulayam Singh Yadav and NCP chief Sharad Pawar.Though Gowda just partnered the Congress to form the government in Karnataka, Modi reminded him of how the Congress withdrew support from his government.He highlighted the many times Congress did ‘dhokha (betrayal)’ with coalition governments, citing the examples of Chandra Shekhar, Gowda and I K Gujral. Modi pointed out how the failure of these experiments ultimately led to Atal Bihari Vajpayee returning to power.The second stump of the strategy was to build up the BJP as a party more sensitive to regional aspirations.Here the PM specifically reached out to Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. He started by blaming the Congress for the crisis caused by politically-motivated, hurried unplanned division of the state.Then, he surprisingly moved Telangana Rashtriya Samiti out of the debate by praising them for showing ‘maturity’ and getting on with the development of Telangana. This was at odds with the fact that the Telangana CM and TRS head K Chandrashekar Rao has been critical of the BJP and in contact with regional forces uniting against Modi.Further, he claimed that the special package for Andhra Pradesh was as good as what the state would have got if accorded special category status. The PM underscored that he was respecting the 14th Finance Commission, which had anyhow devolved more resources to the states.Finally, omissions are equally important to what goes into a political speech.A growing, expanding BJP is an existential threat to some regional parties. The PM chose not into engage that tricky terrain.So, West Bengal CM and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee , principal mover of the federal unity project, was left out even though the BJP has been quite critical of her. Neither was BSP supremo Mayawati targeted.But that in no way means they are off the radar. Come the debate on Triple Talaq and women’s reservation, the BJP will most likely question the credibility and unity of Sonia Gandhi, Mamata and Mayawati.What’s important is not to club them with the reach out to regional parties, especially when each of them has a bitter experience with the BJP.The most glaring omission in this context was PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti, whose government in Srinagar just fell because the BJP withdrew support. In fact, the Kashmir issue was hardly touched upon despite Farooq Abdullah’s inspired intervention.These omissions quite possibly were deliberate. Yet, they were equally important to reposition the BJP with, and not against federal forces – a crucial recalibration ahead of the 2019 elections.