Egged on by the party’s aggressive national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya and Trinamool turncoat Mukul Roy, the BJP had planned to parade defectors from Mamata’s camp every day in Delhi. But, as Roy, who was once Mamata’s number two, brought in Muslim MLAs with criminal charge, the RSS rang the alarm bells. The RSS, which had played an active role in mobilizing the Hindu votes against Mamata’s Muslim outreach, was worried that the BJP was being converted into a Trinamool clone in many assembly constituencies.

The RSS had no problem with the odd defector or two but was very wary of a flood of defectors, who had extracted promise that they would be given tickets to contest next assembly elections. For a party that had expanded across the country both by organic and inorganic methods, there were murmurs that its ideology would be diluted and loyal party workers who had built the party would be hurt by the massive influx of Trinamool and Marxist leaders.

Similarly, in the national capital, where the Aam Aadmi Party had been thorn in the flesh of the BJP, the sweep by the BJP candidates made party managers work hard to contact the AAP MLAs who were considered to be sitting on the fence. Kejriwal had fielded defectors from the Congress in 2015 elections, which the AAP swept, reducing the BJP to three and the Congress to a zero in the 70-member assembly. The toppling game was halted because the BJP high command thought that it was better for theatre-triggered Kejriwal and his cabinet to remain in office for the early 2020 elections. Toppling him would mean more street theatrics from him and a martyr’s halo.

There were mixed signals in Karnataka from the BJP stalwart Yeddyurappa, who is desperate to become chief minister. As he has already crossed 75 years, he is worried that the upper age limit will be used to deny him a final chance. He is in touch with a dozen Congress legislators who are upset that they are not included in the Congress-JD(S) cabinet. But, the six legislators would need to overcome the anti-defection law. Also, the local leadership backing Yeddyurappa was aghast when he told a questionnaire that the BJP was ready for fresh election if Kumaraswamy government fell. This created panic among the defectors, who were worried they would be swept away in elections. By then, Kumaraswamy had attended Narendra Modi’s swearing-in ceremony. Amid all confusion, Yeddyurappa was asked to go slow.

But the go-slow order given to different units can be a temporary one, given the focused attention of both Modi and Shah to have a Congress-free India and to be relentless against the governments that are anti-BJP. It is going easy on a Naveen Patnaik of Odisha, K. Chandrashekhar Rao of Telengana and Y S Jaganmohan Reddy of Andhra Pradesh whereas Captain Amarinder Singh of Punjab, Pinarayi Vijaynan of Kerala and Naraswamy of Puducherry have comfortable majorities, with no deserters in sight. (IPA Service)