The next round of general elections is less than one year away from now. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) seems to be not so friendly which is why one after the other, its allies are walking out isolating Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP national president Amit Shah. The latest to leave is the PDP from Jammu and Kashmir.

The PDP headed by Mahabooba Mufti had left the NDA in Jammu and Kashmir, holding the ally-BJP responsible for the indiscriminate firing on the people during Ramzan celebrations. With the BJP taking reins, the Kashmir violence did not end, but intensified over the last four years. Dominated or directed by the RSS and VHP, the BJP favours mostly pro-Hindu agenda for the country. It was not so glaring during the first term of the NDA led by Atal Behari Vajpayee. The NDA-I was to some extent appeared secular, while the NDA-II under the joint leadership of Modi-Shah is open with the Hindu agenda.

It was first Maharastra’s Shiv Sena which walked out of the NDA opposing the big-brother role of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. Later Punjab’s Shiromani Akali Dal, Andhra Pradesh’s Telugu Desam Party and now Jammu and Kashmir’s Peoples’ Democratic Party walked out of the NDA. The Shiv Sena, TDP, SAD and now PDP walking out of the fold, the NDA has just Lok Janasakthi Party with six MPs in Lok Sabha. The other parties in the alliance have either one or two MPs or none.

There have been allegations of the BJP being either dictatorial ignoring the friendly alliance arrangement or being more aggressive Hindu ideological. Neither ways are accepted in a democracy like India as even the smaller parties too prefer to protect their political identity.

The Shiv Sena in Maharastra and Telugu Desam Party in Andhra Pradesh left the BJP accusing it of not following the alliance dharma. In Andhra Pradesh, the BJP had gone back on the promise of special category status, for which the TDP too agreed initially. However, following the Special Category Status becoming a popular demand the TDP too walked out of the alliance which was a major blow for the BJP.

Out of the 48 parties in the NDA, the Modi-Shah have now left with just 43 parties continuing in the alliance. The interesting point here is that out of the 43 parties that are still part of the NDA, more than 30 have no representation in Lok Sabha, while five have just single MPs followed by two parties with 2 MPs.If Modi-Sha continue to display his power arrogance, he is sure of breaking the NDA which was formed with the great hard work of Vajyappe-Advani in 1998.