The Temple Of Doom

The BJP's fear of failure is manifest in its panic-stricken attempts to forge pre-poll alliances with smaller parties like Ajit Singh's Rashtriya Lok Dal (rld) and Kurmi leader Sonelal Patel's Apna Dal. This is part of its current strategy to tie up with any party which can add to its tally with even a handful of seats. All this also shows that a weakened BJP can't fight elections on its own.

BJP leaders privately admit that they're mainly interested in preventing Mulayam Singh Yadav from forming a government. To achieve that, they don't rule out even a post-poll alliance with Mayawati who has been maintaining "equidistance" from both the SP and the BJP. State BJP leader Lalji Tandon echoes the feelings: "In politics nothing can be forecast or ruled out."