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The Telegraph, a premier English daily from Kolkata, has carried a news item-´Alliance to Reliance´, dated April 10, claiming, “the allies have now become the big brother´s (BJP) ´B team´ and their (NDA partners) ideological opposition to the Sangh Parivar appears to have crumbled… As recent as last year, Sangh Parivar issues such as Ayodhya and cow protection were anathema to almost all the allies, except the Shiv Sena. They had even opposed the ´hard-line´ agenda umpteen times on the floor of Parliament,” the newspaper says. It further adds: “With top NDA leaders such as George Fernandes, N. Chandrababu Naidu and Mamata Banerjee apparently becoming dependent on the BJP, the allies have now also shed their opposition to L.K. Advani´s brand of ´Hindutva´.” To prove its claim, the newspaper mentioned the presence of Orissa Chief Minister, Naveen Patnaik and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu in the Deputy Prime Minister´s Bharat Uday Yatra, when it passed through their states. “Fernandes, however, pulled out all stops by rushing all the way to Nagpur to join Advani,” the report says, further claiming that “faced with ´an Atal wave´ the partners, who had the BJP pandering to them five years ago, have grown weak.” The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partners, who were initially not agreeable to a number of policies and issues of BJP, have now started following its line. They appear to have understood the fact that they have no importance in the national political arena unless they join hands with a national party with a broad base.
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