Even as INDIA crumbles, there is a new alliance shaping up, slowly, steadily: NDA

Even as the promise of the INDIA bloc evaporates, another alliance is taking shape as elections approach. Few saw it coming, for few saw any need for it. However, staying one step ahead of its rivals again, and retaining its edge of surprise, the Narendra Modi-led BJP has managed to stitch three crucial alliances in the past few days, with more on the way.

Modi’s declaration of a 400-plus seat target for the NDA, on the floor of Parliament, no longer seems like a throw-away audacious challenge to rattle the Opposition. Announcing the number, the PM had said the people would not just confine his rivals again to the Opposition benches, but that they may “achieve greater heights and be soon seen only in the public galleries (of the House)”.

Apart from being the face of the BJP electoral campaign, this alliance push also carries Modi’s touch, with the PM putting the past behind to reel in even partners who abused him personally in the past, in service of the larger cause of winning.

The case in point is of JD(U) supremo Nitish Kumar, who split from the BJP in 2015 specifically on the ground of Modi being named the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate. Though he returned to the NDA later, once he re-exited, he was back to attacking the BJP and Modi. As recently as November, Nitish was slamming the Modi government for being “a one-man show”.

Sources say that Nitish’s latest U-turn towards the BJP came about after Modi took the lead to invite him to join the NDA.

The TDP is another former ally who has returned to the NDA ranks. In April 2019, its supremo Chandrababu Naidu had described Modi as “a hardcore terrorist”. “I have only one request for my brothers from the minority community present here. If you vote for Modi, many problems