In the assembly contests of 2025, the BJP has learned to ‘lean in’ to allies

Union Minister and BJP National President JP Nadda with Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Union Minister and Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) Chief Jitan Ram Manjhi. Photo credit: PTI

The year-end gathering of National Democratic Alliance (NDA) allies in New Delhi to mark former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s birth centenary has come as a major relief to the BJP after the 2024 Lok Sabha election results. Leaning on allies and friends for political and narrative battles and will continue in 2025.

After prayers and a tribute program at Vajpayee’s mausoleum, Saadivas Atal, where President Draupadi Murmu, Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi were also present, NDA allies met at BJP president JP Nadda’s residence. Apart from Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu was present. Union Minister and Janata Dal (U) leader Rajeev Ranjan Singh Lalan; Janata Dal (S) leader HD Kumaraswamy, Apna Dal leader Anupriya Patel and Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) founder Jitan Ram Manjhi, all ministers in the Modi government; Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM) President Upendra Kushwaha; and Bharat Dharma Jana Sena president Tushar Vellapalli.

However, this NDA will play a big role in the election battle of Delhi and Bihar in the coming year. According to senior sources in the BJP and JD(U), the former is looking to join forces with its Bihar-based allies – JD(U), Lok Jashakti Party (LJP), and others – for the Delhi assembly elections. Politically important voters in the eastern region of Bihar. “Not just campaigning, there are talks of letting JD(U) and LJP contest in certain seats where they have base support in Delhi,” said a BJP source.

This is not new as JD(U) had contested two seats namely Burari and Sangam Vihar in 2020 elections in New Delhi. This time, Bihar-based NDA allies have also been prominent on narrative issues, with Aam Aadmi Party leader and former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal criticizing BJP president JP Nadda in some comments for what he called derogatory references to the Garibwanchali community. To those Rohingya and Bangladeshi immigrants. The JD(U) has strongly defended the BJP and Mr Nadda and attacked Mr Kejriwal for “abandoning” migrant laborers from Bihar during the Covid lockdown in 2020.

Voters residing in Delhi from the states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are spread across more than half of the city’s 70 assembly constituencies.

BJP’s own leader and Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Chaudhary has also been tapped for a major campaign role for the party in Delhi. He has repeatedly visited Delhi and addressed the press to address the city’s problems. “Not many know that Choudhary attended school in Delhi and lived here as a child,” said a source.

For the BJP, in a true coalition government for the first time after 10 years of a single-party majority, the upcoming assembly elections in Delhi and Bihar show them leaning on their allies for support in a more obvious way than ever before.