NEW DELHI, 30 October 2004 — Rifts continued to surface in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) with BJP’s relations with Janata Dal-United now on the rocks.
The BJP’s newly elected President L.K. Advani’s move to return to a hard-line Hindutva ideology and shift focus back to Ayodhya has been rejected outright by the JD(U).
Party leader Nitish Kumar said the JD(U) would not support any move to disturb the secular fabric of the country. The party is reviewing its alliance with the BJP at its two-day national executive meeting that began in Ranchi yesterday.
In its last national executive meeting in Delhi in July, the JD-U passed a resolution, reiterating its ‘’secular’’ credentials and several party members questioned the continuance of ties with the BJP, following its adoption of the ‘’back to basics’’ theme.
According to sources, both Nitish Kumar and Sharad Yadav are keen to dump the BJP and join hands with the ‘’anti-Lalu Prasad secular forces’’ in Bihar. But they are caught in a bind because the ‘’secular forces’’ remain aligned to Lalu.
Another important NDA ally, the Telugu Desam Party of Chandrababu Naidu, also condemned Advani’s speech at BJP’s executive council meeting in Delhi. Naidu, while reacting to it, disapproved of the party’s assertions on the Ayodhya issue.
The TDP is now in the process of assessing the impact of BJP’s new-found ideological stridency on the future relations between the two parties. Naidu was understood to have disapproved of Advani’s remark that BJP was committed to construction of a Ram temple at Ayodhya where Babri Masjid once stood.
“We have made our stand clear on the Ayodhya issue. It should be resolved through court or consensus among the communities. We will never compromise on secularism,” a former TDP leader quoted Naidu as saying in Hyderabad. Although party members called for a review of the alliance with the BJP in the changed political scenario, Naidu was said to have pointed out that the issue of a tie-up could be decided only at the time of elections.
“We were never part of the NDA. We had only extended outside support to the NDA government. We had differed with the BJP leadership on several issues, including Ayodhya and Gujarat violence. The alliance is only confined to elections,” said Naidu whose party suffered a humiliating defeat in the last state assembly elections. After assuming charge of party president on Oct. 27, Advani said that building a grand temple at Ayodhya was still BJP’s top priority. The party will help its construction as soon as possible and is ready to pay any price for it, said Advani.
Meanwhile, there are reports that Advani’s new look team is likely to include firebrand Uma Bharati and Anant Kumar as general secretaries. Former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha is likely to be included as vice president. Reports also suggest that all members of the old team are likely to be retained. They include Pramod Mahajan, Arun Jaitley and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.
