BJP’s embrace. For Chandrababu Naidu, is it worth THE RISK?
Realpolitik and the lure of power etc, may make such a partnership with the BJP tempting. But the potential dangers have never been more starker.
By Ajith Pillai in Chennai
Given today’s skewed political landscape, when a friend can actually be a foe, a regional party considering an alliance with the BJP must confront a stark question: is it worth the risk?
Realpolitik and the lure of power etc, may make such a partnership tempting, but the potential dangers have never been more starker.
These dangers have been heightened by electoral theft, or “vote chori,” now a widespread belief across the country. It is a devious subterfuge involving the BJP and the Election Commission, rendering elections neither free nor fair. Fortunately, this exercise of fixing electoral outcomes can no longer be ignored or brushed aside, given its profound implications for the entire democratic process.
If electoral manipulation is indeed the BJP’s trump card, then parties that align with it risk sacrificing their long-term relevance for short-term gains.
For the BJP, which is on crutches since the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and clearly lacks a majority, an alliance with a regional party offers the semblance of a broader mandate while providing it a foothold in the state.
Once it secures that foothold, the BJP can quickly expand into its ally’s political space, winning seats even as the ally loses several constituencies it contests from. Electoral fraud can fast-track this process, allowing the saffron party to gain while its electoral partner fades rapidly into insignificance. Therein lies the danger for the regional ally.
The September 26 Indian Express exposé and media reports that followed on alleged voter-list manipulation through the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) have unsettled the BJP allies and those contemplating tying up with the saffron party. The question uppermost on their minds is: how long can a regional party survive before it is subsumed by the BJP, which has complete control over the election process?
Allies of the BJP have been quick to seek answers from the Election Commission. Chirag Paswan of the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) warned that “it is problematic if people begin to doubt the electoral process itself”. TDP Lok Sabha floor leader Lavu Srikrishna Devarayalu and RLM chief Upendra Kushwaha demanded answers from the Election Commission on questions raised in the media.
On October 16, TDP chief and Andhra Pradesh chief minister, Chandrababu Naidu has called for a “Southern Alliance” with his counterparts in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Telangana (all from the INDIA alliance) to address shared concerns on various issues through a single unified stand. The message is unmistakable: Naidu was signalling to the BJP leadership that his leverage was not confined to Andhra Pradesh and the 16 TDP MPs that currently help sustain the minority BJP-led government in Delhi.
Two days later, Naidu’s rival in Andhra Pradesh, YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) president and former chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, did a sharp U-turn to distance himself from the BJP. He acknowledged that his party erred in supporting the 2023 amendment that gave the government a decisive advantage in appointing the chief election commissioner and other election commissioners.
"Earlier, YSRCP supported this process of allowing the ruling party to make appointments. But today, we regret giving that support. We made a mistake," he said, adding, "an examiner cannot be appointed by the student.” Jagan Mohan was clearly indicating he is with the other opposition parties in opposing vote chori.
Tamil Nadu saw the ruling party and the Opposition uniting against the Election Commission. On October 23, nine major parties, including the TVK, DMK, Congress, CPI, CPI(M) and AAP, walked out of an all-party meeting convened by Chief Electoral Officer Archana Patnaik to discuss the upcoming Special Summary Revision (SSR) of electoral rolls. They demanded Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation and insisted that alleged irregularities in the earlier SIR be addressed before another revision. Only three NDA parties, the BJP, AIADMK and National People’s Party (NPP), attended the meeting. In any case, these parties are week here and lack mass support in the state,
The SIR controversy has clearly deepened distrust of the BJP among the larger political class. They know at stake is their political survival. Without free and fair elections, today’s partners risk becoming tomorrow’s casualties once their usefulness to the BJP ends.
And rivals could be wiped out in a single election. Their fate could rest not with voters, but with those who control the Election Commission.
In the past, the BJP’s process of devouring and assimilating an ally unfolded over several years. Maharashtra offers a typical example.
The Shiv Sena, once a dominant regional force and the BJP’s oldest ally, has been slowly reduced to a shadow of its former self. Its decline should serve as a cautionary tale to every regional party considering an alliance with the BJP.
The rift between the saffron friends began after the 2019 Assembly elections, which the two parties contested together. As the single largest party, the BJP claimed the leading role in forming the government. Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, however, demanded that the chief minister’s post be shared on a rotational basis since the BJP had all along ridden piggyback on the Sena’s regional influence. When the BJP refused, Thackeray ended the alliance and formed a government with the secular formation of the Congress and Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party.
The BJP struck back in 2022, engineering a rebellion within the Sena and backing rebel leader Eknath Shinde as chief minister. The arrangement initially favoured Shinde, but after the allegedly “rigged” 2024 Assembly elections, the BJP tightened its grip. Having emerged as the single largest party, it installed Devendra Fadnavis as chief minister and relegated Shinde to the deputy’s post.
Inreasingly losing political relevance and morally discredited, Shinde now feels shortchanged, while his camp is increasingly resentful of his diminished role. Visible tension hasemerged between the BJP and Shinde’s Sena over state leadership and allotment of key portfolios in the cabinet.
Their partnership has slowly become an alliance of convenience rather than one built on trust or mutual respect. Meanwhile, the BJP is clearly determined to assert its dominance and could well push Shinde’s Sena to the margins.
Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi described the 2024 assembly elections in Maharashtra as the “BJP’s blueprint for rigging democracy.” He listed five steps employed to “steal elections” in a tweet on X on June 9, 2025:
“Step 1: Rig the panel for appointing the Election Commission.
Step 2: Add fake voters to the rolls.
Step 3: Inflate voter turnout.
Step 4: Target the bogus voting exactly where BJP needs to win.
Step 5: Hide the evidence.”
Ardent followers of the establishment dismissed his allegations as the wild imaginings of a failed leader. Then BJP president, J.P. Nadda, dismissed it as the “blueprint for manufacturing narratives”. Rahul Gandhi had also warned that the “match-fixing of Maharashtra (elections) will come to Bihar next, and then anywhere the BJP is losing.”
What followed in Bihar gave his warning added credibility, although, predictably, sections of the media refused to buy it. The post-SIR elections saw the BJP emerge as the single largest party. Yet, perhaps to show it plays fair, it backed its ally Nitish Kumar of the JD(U) as chief minister.
Four months later, Nitish resigned, paving the way for Samrat Chaudhry to become Bihar’s first BJP chief minister. The JD(U), once the alliance’s senior partner, had been reduced to secondary status.
Many have linked the JD(U)–BJP-led NDA’s landslide victory in Bihar—202 of 243 seats—to voter deletions during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. An analysis by The Quint found that victory margins in 174 constituencies were smaller than the number of voters deleted from the rolls. In all, 91 seats changed hands compared with the 2020 elections, with the INDIA alliance losing 75 to the NDA.
According to The Hindu, 47 lakh voters were deleted from Bihar’s electoral rolls ahead of the assembly polls. For the JD(U) and other regional parties, the larger question is how secure their own electoral futures would be if allegations of vote chori and electoral manipulation remain unresolved.
In West Bengal, the BJP contested the 2026 assembly elections with a singular objective: to unseat Mamata Banerjee’s entrenched Trinamool Congress (TMC). The outcome marked an incredible role reversal. Surprisingly, with little support base, oraganisational structure, or popularity, the BJP won 207 of 294 seats, while the TMC secured just 80. In 2021, the TMC had won 215 seats and the BJP 77.
It was widely perceived to be a brazen case of ‘stolen elections’ -- thanks to Gyanesh Kumar.
En masse voter deletions once again came under scrutiny. An analysis by DeKoder, the media platform run by Prannoy Roy, found that “higher deletion rates roughly doubled the negative swing against the TMC and showed a positive statistical association with BJP vote gains.” The BJP recorded a vote swing of roughly eight percentage points in its favour, while the TMC’s vote share fell by seven percentage points. In all, 91 lakh voters were deleted from the state’s electoral rolls before the elections.
The Hindutva party also launched an effort to persuade TMC MLAs and MPs to quit the TMC and join the BJP, reportedly through a combination of pressure tactics and inducements. This is the pattern followed by the BJP, rather brazenly, even in the case of an “stolen elections” – as alleged by Mamata Banerjee repeatedly.
Allegations of electoral manipulation and coercive defections raise a troubling question: can meaningful political competition survive if the fairness of elections and the independence of opposition parties are under threat?
Vote chori must be confronted swiftly and decisively. The vote is the fundamental right of every citizen of India. Deletion from the voters’ list literally amounts to rendering the person without a citizenship. One vote, one nation, is the key to Indian democracy.
Allegations must be independently investigated, eligible voters protected from wrongful deletion, and those responsible for manipulation must be held accountable and punished.
No assault on the electoral process should be tolerated or excused.
Indeed, if the current system must be demolished, demolish it!
If EVMs cannot be trusted, then restore paper ballots.
Establish an independent body to oversee the Election Commission and its officials. More importantly, ensure greater transparency so that the electoral process earns public trust and remains beyond suspicion.
Remember, when a party can manipulate elections with impunity, the ballot loses its meaning, and the people’s mandate becomes a bitter joke. In all this, at stake is not merely the fate of individual parties, but the fate of voters’ freedom to choose. The future of democracy in India is itself at stake.
Ajith Pillai is Co-Editor independentink.in.
A seasoned journalist working in the profession for 40 years, he has reported out of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Andhra Pradesh and Kashmir on a broad spectrum of events related to politics, crime, conflict and social change. He has worked with leading publications, including The Sunday Observer, Indian Post, Pioneer, The Week and India Today, where he headed the Chennai bureau. He was part of the team led Editor Vinod Mehta that launched Outlook magazine and headed its current affairs section till 2012. Under his watch, Outlook broke several stories that attracted national attention and questioned the government of the day. He has written two books—'Off the Record: Untold Stories from a Reporter’s Diary,’ and a novel, ‘Junkland Journeys’. He is currently working on ‘Obedient Editor’, a satirical novel on the life and times of a ‘compromised’ journalist. The short story presented here is from a collection that is awaiting publication.
Images courtesy of Instagram.