In its search for allies and votes, the BJP is toning down its exclusivist Hindutva.

By Saba Naqvi Bhaumik

Atal Bihari Vajpayee did not miss the irony in the 11th Lok Sabha being dissolved on the same day that the BJP held its first all-India Muslim youth conference in a packed Delhi stadium. "People may suggest we have an understanding with the President that he will dissolve the Lok Sabha on the day our Muslim conference is taking place," he joked. The party was in effect kicking off its election campaign with an address to a community whose tactical voting has been a formidable hurdle in its march to power.

Instead of leading the charge with full-throated Jai Shri Rams, leader after BJP leader recited Urdu couplets. Paeans were sung to Muslim heroes, some known, others unknown. Party President L.K. Advani referred to examples of India's composite culture: Hindus visiting Sufi shrines, Meo Muslims reciting from the Hindu epics. "The one good thing the United Front did was to honour Abdul Kalam with the Bharat Ratna," he declared. K. R. Malkani added his mite with "Ram-Rahim ek hain, Krishna-Kaaba ek hain" but got a shade carried away when he declared, "No Muslim will oppose Atalji even if he stands from Islamabad!"

Though there is no retreat from the party's distinctiveness -- promulgation of a

uniform civil code, repeal of Article 370 and the construction of the Ram mandir -- the BJP's Campaign '98 will be marked by a distinct softening of style. That is why Advani revived his peace offering at the youth conference: let Muslims give up the claim to the Babri Masjid site and he would personally negotiate with the VHP leaders to find a settlement to the Kashi and Mathura disputes.

In searching for both pre- and post-election allies and courting the incremental vote, the BJP is assiduously toning down its exclusivist Hindutva. The party leadership realises that the Muslim support bases of the DMK, TDP and AGP are the biggest hurdles in the way of regional parties entering into an understanding with the BJP. Similar constituency constraints were also a factor in the BJP's recent failure to muster the requisite defectors to split the Congress at the Centre.

While even the most optimistic BJP supporters do not really expect Muslims to start voting for the party, they do expect to make inroads into other groups. The party recently elevated an Adivasi to state unit president in Madhya Pradesh. Similarly, Chief Minister Kalyan Singh is expected to deliver a section of the Backward Caste vote in Uttar Pradesh. The party also proudly touts the fact that a maximum number of Scheduled Caste MLAs in Uttar Pradesh are from the BJP. But the leadership is aware that all electoral calculations in the state that sent one-third of the BJP MPs to the last Lok Sabha could go haywire if the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party forge an alliance. All the same the party whose support base is still overwhelmingly from the middle classes will be straining to broadbase its social appeal in the next election.

The BJP is also ready to push through the notion that it is no longer a political untouchable. It is toying with the idea of wooing members from parties such as the Congress and Janata Dal (JD) even in a pre-election formation. The leadership has already assessed that the Congressmen who recently considered the option of supporting the BJP at the Centre were driven by two compulsions: the need to fight their own petty battles within the Congress and the fear of losing the next polls. The BJP gave assurances that they would not put up candidates against any potential rebel Congressmen.

Now the party is seriously considering taking this strategy to its logical conclusion by engineering rebel blocs within some state units of the Congress and JD, along the lines of the Loktantrik Congress that recently split from the parent party to prop up the Kalyan Singh Government in Uttar Pradesh. If such attempts do succeed, then the BJP and rebel formations would campaign from the same platform.

It is not mere oratory when Vajpayee says "the Congress should realise that after 110 years its historical role is coming to an end". He knows that Election '98 is a make or break battle for the BJP -- a battle it can only win if it decimates the Congress. And he hints at a serious political strategy when he says, "It is understandable if Congressmen want to leave a sinking ship, clamber on to a small boat and come towards a strong ship."

However, any exodus of erstwhile Congress voters to the BJP will depend on Vajpayee. The BJP will run an aggressive presidential-style campaign centred on Vajpayee. In appealing to those who have hitherto shied away from the party of Ram, Vajpayee's well-known disapproval of the Ayodhya movement is likely to prove useful. The BJP leader has a popularity rating that far exceeds the support for the BJP. He is seen as genial, avuncular and an old-world politician -- the exact opposite of the hard face of Hindutva that is now on hold.

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