Is the Bharat Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS), BJP’s biggest ally in Kerala, preparing to leave the National Democratic AllianceIJ Though BDJS leaders have not so far made any open statement in this regard, there are strong indications that the party is seriously considering severing the 18-month-old relationship.
The main reason for the majority community-based party’s thinking is the neglect it has allegedly been facing from the State and national leaderships of the BJP. According to BDJS sources, the alliance has not brought any political or material advantage to the party despite the fact that the NDA is in power in the Centre.
One of the main complaints of the BDJS leaders is that the BJP has totally neglected the party’s aspirations while allotting major positions in the boards and corporations under the Union Government. They say that though they had brought this issue to the attention of the State and Central BJP leaders, the grievance had not been looked into.
The BDJS leadership has reportedly conveyed messages to its committees at all levels about the need to sever ties with the BJP. The party has allegedly decided not to cooperate even with NDA programmes that have already been scheduled. The BDJS may take a crucial decision by September 30 if no positive gestures come from the BJP leadership till then.
The option is being examined in the context of the leadership’s conviction that neither the CPI(M)-led ruling lDF nor the Congress-led Opposition UDF is against the idea of forging friendship with the BDJS. However, it is in no hurry to join either of the two fronts as no important election is coming up in recent future.
“There is a strong feeling among the party workers as well as leaders at various levels that we have not received fair treatment from the BJP as the alliance’s leader or from the Central Government led by that party. Many think that there is no point in continuing like this,” said a senior BDJS leader from Alappuzha.
According to observers, it will be a huge blow to the BJP’s plans for broad-basing the NDA for achieving the Mission 350-Plus goal set by party president Amit Shah for the next general election if the BDJS chooses to sever ties with it. It will be extremely difficult for the BJP to find another ally as strong and influential as the BDJS in Kerala, they say.
launched on December 5, 2015 as a political party of various majority communities, the Bharat Dharma Jana Sena draws its actual strength from the influential Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana (SNDP) Yogam, organisation of Hindu backward Ezhavas who constitute over 23 percent of Kerala’s total population.
The BDJS joined the BJP-led alliance before the Assembly election of May, 2016 and it had fielded candidates in 37 of the total 140 constituencies. Though it could not win any seat, it managed to gather about four per cent of the total valid votes while the vote-share of the BJP, which contested in 98 seats, rose to 11 per cent from the 6.03 per cent it had got in 2011.
BDJS leaders are claiming that the BJP would not have been able to improve its vote-share without its help and that it was also instrumental in the victory of a BJP candidate, senior leader O Rajagopal, for the first time in Kerala’s history. “Still, they don’t seem to be prepared to take our complaints seriously,” said the BDJS leader.
The first person to protest against the neglect the BDJS has allegedly been facing from the BJP leadership was none other than Vellappally Natesan, general secretary of the SNDP Yogam and father of party president Thushar Vellappally. Natesan has been proposing severing the alliance with the BJP for the past several months.
However, Thushar, also the convener of the State NDA, was of the position that his father was chief of the SNDP Yogam and had no authority to speak for the BDJS. A source in the BDJS said that Thushar had started agreeing with his father’s position and that Natesan would have the ultimate say.