Two political trends evident in 1997 were the decimation of the Congress and the metamorphosis of the BJP into another Congress. ... The BJP, the party likely to be closest to striking distance of a majority, is talking about getting to power by hook or by crook. Suddenly, Jayalalitha's corruption cases have become less unsavoury. It was not the BJP's fixers or even its second rung leadership which talked about splitting the Congress; it was the top leaders of the BJP (who) boosted that 40 Cong. MPs were ready to cross over to the BJP.

BJP leaders openly admitted that power was the raison d'etre for the jumbo cabinet of Kalyan Singh with every defector, including history sheeters, getting a ministry. They justified it on grounds of realpolitik to show that the BJP could manage 'raj kaj' as amorally as the Congress had done over the years. How is the party different from the BSP which calls itself an "opportunist" force, utilising every opportunity in the naked pursuit of power for the dalits, regardless of anything else? The truth is that the top leaders of the BJP are now tired men, who have struggled for decades and now want somehow to get to power.

With power as its core ideology now, the BJP's bubble may burst sooner than later. It may not take as long as it did with the Congress, which had been shaped through the rough and tremble of the freedom movement and held together, despite the three splits, by its legacy. It also had a long experience of family rule which also kept the party, a feudal outfit, together.

In the last five years, the BJP has been the biggest beneficiary of the Mandal mantra and has used it to get effect in UP and Bihar to widen its base without alienating the upper castes. In UP it has the support of two of the three major OBC communities, the Lodhs and Kurmis, and a sizeable section of the smaller backward castes which add upto 26% of the state's population. In Bihar, with Samata party on its side, it has made inroads into the Kurmi-Koeri vote bank.

The RSS and its front organisations like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad may go along with the decision to put their programmes on the backburner as a part of a tactical withdrawal by the BJP to project a more acceptable face. But ultimately, they too will assert, as will the upper castes who see in the BJP on opportunity to regain their lost power ... It remains to be seen to what extent it accept the secular agenda and where this leaves the party with its mentor - the RSS. There is a logic of ruling a vast and diverse country like India with its 110 million Muslim population which no mainstream party can afford to ignore. ... At the start of 1998, we have a power on the upswing which is unlikely to sprvive for long, facing the same dilemmas asthe party it is seeking to displace. And the power that is on the decline is showing no will to revive. This will spell instability for the nation.     (Source: The Indian Express, 29 December, 1997)