Opinion: Behind BJP's Change Of Heart On Allies

I have a simple question. Why is the BJP looking for allies now when parliamentary elections are almost 10 months away? The answer could be equally simple - like every political party, the BJP also wants to bulk up electorally before the general elections come around. But I wish the answer could be this simple.

There is no denying that the BJP today feels that it needs new allies to gain more electoral muscle power. And so, it has reached out to the Shiromani Akali Dal in Punjab, the TDP in Andhra Pradesh, Jitan Ram Manjhi of HAM, Mukesh Sahni of VIP and Chirag Paswan in Bihar, JDS in Karnataka, and Om Prakash Rajbhar in Uttar Pradesh.

This is the same BJP that, a few months back, was confident of a majority in the general elections in 2024. Since the 2019 elections, it has behaved as if it does not need allies. When alliance partners left one after the other, the BJP made no effort to reach out. In fact, the party believed its allies needed the BJP more for survival. That seems to have changed. Now the BJP is looking for friends. This is a dead giveaway - the BJP is no longer confident of winning a majority in 2024 and it may need friendly parties to form the government.