New Delhi: Regional parties, which had once aspired to form a government at the Centre on their own, now seem to be swept away by the 'Modi wave', as they warm up to the BJP-led NDA ahead of poll results.
Even as the exit-polls predict a clean sweep for the NDA, regional parties are bound to play a crucial role in the formation of government at the Centre.
While Naveen Patnaik's Biju Janata Dal and Jayalalithaa's AIADMK have already indicated that they might rejoin the NDA camp post poll results, Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress remains adamant on its anti-Modi, anti-BJP stand.
The BJD has demanded special status for Odisha in return for its support. Speaking to CNN-IBN, party leader Jay Panda said, "We are certainly not reaching out to them. I will acknowledge that couple of our members both in the Assembly and the Parliament have mooted the idea that if a government at Delhi were to address some of the historical injustices that have affected Odisha.. now this is a wide spread view in Odisha.. this is a long held view in Odisha that there have been historical injustices, so a couple of my colleagues have mooted the idea that perhaps we ought to consider that, I acknowledge that, I don't want to dismiss any of my colleagues suggestions without at least hearing them out."
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa too who had prime ministerial aspirations might just end up joining the NDA.
AIADMK leader K Malaisamy said on Wednesday that Jayalalithaa and Narendra Modi were great friends and the former would like to keep close ties with the BJP if the Gujarat CM was appointed as the next Prime Minister.
The TMC, meanwhile, does not plan to do any business with a Modi-led government, as party leader Derek O'Brien said, "You asked me about a Modi-led government, the answer is no, if you go and ask me a supplementary what about the NDA if the NDA are 20-25 short, we have done a straight forward campaign, you know what the narrative of our campaign has been, the answer to that is also no."
As the political parties go into a huddle discussing their future course of action, Nationalist Congress Party leader Praful Patel had also picked up a row recently when he said that the BJP will emerge as the single largest party. He however, later clarified that the NCP had no plans to jump the UPA ship and join the NDA. Party leader Jitendra Awhad rallied behind Patel as he said that the chances of NCP reaching out to Modi was "no", "never". "We are having our state elections, we are partners with Congress within the state, why should be commit suicide?," he added.
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