BJP now wants to court Kanshi Ram on a national scale

George Iype in New Delhi

Having succeeded in forming a coalition government with the Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttar Pradesh, the Bharatiya Janata Party is now keen to extend its partnership with Kanshi Ram at the national level.

BJP sources said the idea of continuing its association with the BSP has emanated from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh which wants its ideological offspring to spread its reach among the scheduled castes and dalits beyond Uttar Pradesh.

According to BJP insiders, ever since the UP election threw up a hung assembly, there has been considerable pressure on the party from its parent organisation to clinch a deal with the BSP to form a coalition government in India's most populous state.

In fact, the suggestion to offer the chief ministership to BSP general secretary Mayawati is said to have come from the RSS leadership, despite vehement protests from the BJP chief minister-in-waiting Kalyan Singh.

The RSS leadership argued that the gesture of giving the chief ministership to Mayawati will help the BJP not only shake off its upper caste tag, but consolidate the party's forays into the scheduled caste vote, which accounts for a whopping 21 per cent of the national vote.

The RSS top brass also advised the BJP leaders that clinching a power sharing deal with Kanshi Ram would help the party to overcome its political isolation.

Many believe the BJP-BSP pact in UP proves the former's willingness to make compromises in its quest for winning more than 220 parliamentary seats to rule the country.

According to BJP vice-president K R Malkani, with the emergence of regional parties across the country the complexion of national politics in India has changed.

"There is nothing wrong and unethical in exploring all possibilities to form coalition governments,'' Malkani told Rediff On The NeT, citing the government headed by Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda as an example.

''In fact, the six point coalition agreement between the BJP and the BSP makes a mention of the intention of the two parties to seek close contacts in other states as far as possible," Malkani added.

While the BJP's compulsions have been obvious ever since the secular forces aligned last year to form the federal government, the support the party received from the RSS in its quest to cobble together an alliance for the next general election has put the party's leaders in an upbeat mood.

Political analysts believe the alliances that the BJP has forged with regional parties like the Akali Dal in Punjab, the Samata Party in Bihar and the Haryana Vikas Party and its partnership with the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra will help the party win the support of more regional parties.

Given the possibility that the next general election could also throw up a hung Parliament, an alliance with the BSP on a national scale could tilt the power balance in the BJP's favour.

And to achieve this end, the BJP leadership is ready to put the controversial Ram temple issue on the back burner for the time being.

But the BJP strategy largely depends on the mercurial BSP supremo and the durability of the UP experiment.

Malkani feels the chances of survival of the BJP-BSP government in UP are "quite good." "Since both the parties have identical stakes in the UP government, he said, "the alliance cannot break away easily."