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BJP plans to lure other party MLAs to shore up assembly strength

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Faced with the prospect of running a minority government, BJP may engineer defection of MLAs from other parties like the Congress and NCP, and even its estranged ally, Shiv Sena, to shore up the numbers in the legislative assembly.

BJP leaders admit that the party high command, which is not too keen on taking Sena along due to the bitterness created during the poll campaign, does feel that propping up a minority government with outside support from NCP is fraught with risks. Hence the plan to lure MLAs out of other parties and get them elected again on BJP symbol on the lines of 'Operation Lotus' in Karnataka, undertaken during the days of the BS Yeddyurappa government.

The party has little or no other option to ensure a stable government under Devendra Fadnavis, who will be the first BJP chief minister in Maharashtra. BJP has 122 MLAs, plus one of ally (RSP), and the support of seven independents and three BVA legislators. But that won't help it get past the halfway mark in the 288-member house.

Sena has 63 MLAs and NCP 41. NCP, which prime minister Narendra Modi had castigated as a "naturally corrupt party" in his election rallies, stole a march over Sena by offering outside support to BJP, and its legislators are likely to abstain from trust vote, helping the BJP govt to sail through. However, BJP leaders feel such a 'support' may come with strings attached—diluting alleged draft cases, etc.

"We plan to engineer split in other parties and lure 30-35 legislators," said a BJP leader. "We may split parties including the Sena. There are many legislators eager to join us... They will be assured that they would be re-elected on BJP tickets once they quit as legislators and leave their party," claimed a BJP MLA.

Incidentally, in 1990s, senior BJP leaders engineered a split in Janata Dal, which was supporting the BJP government in Rajasthan and wooed some the MLAs who had quit Janata Dal into party fold. Around half of these legislators were then re-elected under BJP ticket in subsequent polls.

Sena and BJP tied up in 1989 after an electorally unsuccessful attempt in the 1984 Lok Sabha polls. The two-and-a-half-decade-old alliance came to an end before the assembly polls over issues of seat and power sharing.

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