NDA insiders say the Opposition unity has always been highly fragile but the BJP has failed to take advantage of it.

By Swati Deb

New Delhi: Fissures in the Opposition camp to the fore in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday when several regional parties and socialist leaders favoured debate and discussion on the Lalitgate controversy against the Congress’ demand for the resignation of Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj. Disagreement emerging so early into the session is not a good sign for the Congress, which has taken a rather extreme position on the issue, but NDA insiders say the Opposition unity has always been highly fragile but the BJP has failed to take advantage of it.

The BJP’s floor management should be more efficient. A subtler approach towards non-UPA parties, or even those with the UPA, would easily leave the Congress isolated. While it is justified in raising the issues such as Vyapam, its demands make no sense, say NDA insiders. “This is not for the first time such a situation has emerged. But the ruling NDA combine has been unable to make the most of it,” say sources in the Shiv Sena.

"Some gaps and our functioning style result in these situations where from a winning position, we are scoring self-goals,” they add. The reference was perhaps to BJP’s alleged autocratic and ‘ekla chalo approach’ to running the proceedings of the House. Some leaders feel that there are several reasons for the ineffective coordination between the BJP and state-level parties. These include arrogance of BJP leaders, absence of personal rapport with top leaders, no senior member of the government seeking support from these parties and BJP’s ambitious attempts to gain ground in states like West Bengal, Odisha and Tamil Nadu.

“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,” says Sharad Yadav of JD(U), who has been close to BJP leaders for over two decades. Many endorse this view with Trinamool sources saying BJP leaders most often appear condescending and this is damaging.

BJP leaders dismiss the Trinamool version with the refrain being PM Narendra Modi has gone out of the way trying to build a working rapport with Mamata Banerjee. “Which PM would have given a chief minister so much as Modi did to Mamata during Bangladesh trip,” junior Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said.

Mayawati of BSP, which has 10 members in Upper House, sounded evasive on her party's stand and said her party is trying to assess mood of other parties. But BSP sources said "no one from government or BJP has approached our party to assist them." For his part, Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav, influential cousin of party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, has extended his party’s support to the embattled Sushma twice in as many days. “Sushmaji has done nothing wrong. Her help to Lalit Modi (controversial ex-IPL commissioner) was on humanitarian ground. We will not support any party who is insisting on her resignation."

But another SP leader Naresh Agarwal said, "It will not be proper to allow discussions without resignation of the ministers". Significantly bringing some solace for the Modi government, Samajwadi Party has also made it clear that it will not join other opposition parties with regard to the contentious Land Bill. “You cannot build highways, petrol pumps or public amenities without land,” Ram Gopal Yadav said.

Among other regional outfits, BJD leaders feel one reason that is blocking BJP’s effective coordination with regional parties is BJP’s major “expansion plans” in states like Odisha and West Bengal. “We do not mind their attempt to grow in states where they have no base, but in some units BJP leaders are being unrealistic and overambitious. So quite often they indulge in strategies which is provoking adverse reactions from regional parties,” says a BJD leader.