BJP President Amit Shah is meeting Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal on Tuesday evening after the NDA allies raised the issue of “lack of coordination” in a meeting held ahead of the Budget session of Parliament on Monday night.

In the NDA meeting, the allies reportedly pointed out that coordination was much better during Atal Behari Vajpayee’s tenure.

As a follow-up of the NDA meeting, the BJP Chief’s parleys with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president on Tuesday is said to be part of the process of establishing better communication and dialogue between the allies. The BJP chief is expected to hold similar meetings with the leaders of other alliance partners – TDP, Shiv Sena and others – in the days to come.

In the late Monday night meeting over dinner, Sukhbir Badal reportedly told the BJP leaders that the alliance partners felt “alienated” and many of the decisions of the government’s decisions are not communicated to them. Badal told the BJP that many issues, which were flagged by the allies, have been repeatedly ignored. Badal reportedly demanded a package for Punjab and a pension scheme for elderly farmers from the Central Government.

The SAD chief was also reportedly upset about the BJP’s Punjab unit’s efforts to break the alliance. The strain between the BJP and SAD has become pronounced over the past few months with latter’s popularity going down in the run-up to the state assembly polls next year. The BJP’s top leadership, however, is not in favour of breaking up with SAD.

Sources said in the NDA meeting, other allies too joined in with the Shiv Sena warning the BJP to stop “undermining” them. The allies, the sources said, are seeking for better coordination and communication within the NDA.

It is learnt that the SAD, Shiv Sena and the TDP told the BJP that they were not well communicated about most of the government schemes.

Briefing the media after the meeting, Parliamentary Affairs Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu said the NDA leaders of nine parties deliberated over the issues likely to come up in the session and a common strategy.

Issues like Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula’s suicide in the Hyderabad Central Univerity, Malda violence, imposition of President’s Rule in Arunachal Pradesh were also deliberated.

A suggestion was also made to hold meeting of NDA MPs on the line of the BJP parliamentary party so that they could be informed about the government’s “pro-poor, pro-weaker sections, pro-farmer” initiatives and are in a position to counter the opposition attack.

The Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister said the NDA meeting should be taking up larger issues concerning the nation and ideas to take it forward and not remain confined to party-specific matters which, he added, should be dealt in one-on-one meetings.

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