The Bharatiya Janata Party leaders outwardly assert that their party will win over 300 MP seats to form the government at the Centre with a comfortable majority. Internally, there are doubts whether the party will cross 180 seats. This is the reason why Modi and Amit Shah are very anxious to win new allies regardless of what sacrifices it may take. As part of this, Modi came down a few steps and acted favourably towards the Navin Patnaik government in Odisha in the releasing of Central funds for Fani cyclone relief works.
In fact, the BJP gave a very tough fight to the Biju Janata Dal party of Navin in the present election. There was a lot of grass roots conflict as the BJP made all out efforts to win majority seats in Odisha. Despite this bitter enemity, Modi changed his stance now to win BJD’s favour if required after the May 23 results. Similarly, Congress leaders are also eager to win new allies at any cost. Speculation is that there are more regional parties to support Congress if it crosses 140 seats in Lok Sabha. Even BJD, TRS and YCP are expected to support Congress if it manages to hurt the BJP considerably in the North Indian states.
