In the upcomming general election, there is a two-cornered contest between the India Alliance and the National Democratic Alliance.
The INDIA Alliance is campaiging to bring to an end the 10 year old BJP led government and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is campaigning to win400 seats and re-establishing the government. But problems persist in the BJP alliance. In Punjab, where the Aam Aadmi Party is ruling, the Aam Aadmi Party and the Congress have formed an alliance.
The BJP was negotiating with the Shiromani Akali Dal as the two parties have been in alliance for many years. In 2020, the coalition suffered a rift due to the casualties during the farmers' protest. BJP tried to bridge this rift in the current parliamentary elections. But could not. BJP's state president Sunil Jakhar has announced that the BJP will contest alone in all the 13 Lok Sabha constituencies. It means that there is no BJP alliance with ShiromaniAkali Dal.
Amidst the problems in patching up the alliance, within an hour of the publication of the list of BJP candidates, Ranjan Bhatt, who was announced as the candidate for the Vadodara constituency in the state of Gujarat where Modi was the Chief Minister, announced that he would not contest.
The candidate for the Sabarkantha constituency, also announced his withdrawal from the contest.Similarly, Satyadev Pachauri, who was announced as the candidate for BJP's Lok Sabha seat in the BJP-ruled state of Uttar Pradesh, Kanpur, has caused a stir by refusing to contest the election. In West Bengal too, some BJP candidates are staying away from the polls.
That is not all? The BJP has announced that it will not contest in the northeastern states of Meghalaya, Manipur and Nagaland. Even in Manipur, where the BJP is ruling, the party is far away from the field. The reason for this was the large-scale riots that took place there.
Similarly, BJP could not form a strong coalition in some states. Shiv Sena-BJP seat-sharing problem continues in Maharashtra. In Odisha, the BJP has announced that it will contest alone after negotiations with the Biju Janata Dal failed. So, candidates withdrawing, alliance breaks, withdrawing from the competition.In view of all this, India's alliance parties are campaigning that ``BJP is scared of failure''. Political critics also say that this is a setback for the BJP.
Will BJP achieve its target of winning 400 seats'' by fixing all the setbacks?
Well one has to wait and see!