With the BJP all set to announce its candidates for the Lok Sabha polls, politicians and smaller parties are making a beeline for the saffron party in a bid to derive political mileage by aligning with it.
And Friday was a busy day for the BJP as leaders like former Congress Minister D Purandeswari and JD(U)MP Sushil Kumar Singh, joined the party.
Even former Lok Sabha speaker P A Sangma decided to align with the BJP for contesting the Parliamentary polls in Meghalaya.
Sources said the BJP has also almost finalised the alliance talks with the Vijayakanth-led DMDK party for the contesting the elections in Tamil Nadu.
Purandeshwari was a major catch for the BJP and she had quit the Congress to join the party ahead of the elections. Daughter of TDP founder and matinee idol, the late N T Rama Rao, Purandeshwari, who resigned from the Union Cabinet on the Andhra Pradesh bifurcation issue, is likely to be fielded from her current Visakhapatnam constituency. And she called on L K Advani and Sushma Swaraj to seek their blessings before meeting BJP chief Rajnath Singh.
Sushil, who was widely tipped to join the BJP,met Rajnath on Friday to formally join the BJP. Similarly, UP Congress MP Jagdambika Pal and former Bihar NCP president Nagmani are expected to join the BJP.
The BJP also managed to stitch together alliances with two more parties thus expanding the NDA’s political footprint.
National People Party (NPP) chief P A Sangma and his daughter Agatha Sangma met Rajnath and the NPP leaders said the tie-up could fetch an additional 12 seats to the NDA, since Sangma’s party has presence not only in the North-East, but also in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. Agatha, who is a sitting MP from Tura in Meghalaya, had won the seat on an NCP-Congress ticket. Sangma had parted ways with the NCP after he contested the Presidential election, with NDA support in 2012.
BJP sources said the party will welcome more such MPs and smaller parties from different states and talks in this regard were at an advanced stage. As the elections have been announced, the tie-ups could materialise within the next few days.
However, not all alliances were welcomed in the BJP. As senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj voiced her opposition to the tie-up with the Reddy brothers-run BSR Congress in Karnataka, and aligning with former Congress MP Venod Sharma in Haryana, senior BJP leaders met at Advani’s house.