New Delhi: BJP president Amit Shah's " kutta-billi-saamp" jibe not only negates his own party's history of gaining legitimacy by aligning with small parties but also reflects a growing tendency to alienate allies under the Modi-Shah dispensation.

Shah's jibe has come at a time the TDP has walked out of the NDA, and the Shiv Sena - the sole ally with which the BJP can claim ideological fraternity - has been making belligerent noises. A small ally in Uttar Pradesh has also articulated its frustration.

Allies may not count in a 2014-like scenario when Narendra Modi towered over the electoral landscape but in an unpredictable 2019, the BJP may realise the value of singles and twos and the liability of name-callers.

Opposition veterans recalled how the BJP and its earlier avatar, the Jana Sangh, had got out of their crises of legitimacy and gained strength through alignments with diverse political forces.

While the Jana Sangh merged into the Janata Party as part of a large anti-Congress coalition in 1977, the BJP had to jettison some of its core ideological demands to form the National Democratic Alliance in 1998.

"There was a time when parties used to unite to fight the Congress: the BJP has forgotten its own history," Congress general secretary Ashok Gehlot said.

Shah had on Friday scoffed at the way motley groups were joining forces against the BJP. "When there are huge floods, all animals like snakes, mongooses, dogs and cats climb onto a single tree for refuge. Fearing the Modi flood, the snake, mongoose, bitch, dog and cat are coming together to fight the polls," he had told a rally.

As questions were raised, the BJP president argued he had merely alluded to the fact of divergent parties joining hands.

While Trinamul and the Nationalist Congress Party are offshoots of the Congress, the Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, CPI, CPM, National Conference and the Telugu Desam Party profess secular principles that are more incompatible with the Sangh's ideology.

When the BJP had formed the NDA under Atal Bihari Vajpayee's leadership, it had co-opted disparate groups by declaring that the common agenda did not include its pet issues of a uniform civil code, a Ram temple in Ayodhya and the removal of Article 370.

Even now, the BJP has one stand on beef in the Hindi heartland and another in the Northeast and Goa to pacify regional allies. In Kashmir, it has tied up with the People's Democratic Party, some of whose political beliefs are antithetical to the BJP's.

Some of the regional parties Shah has compared to dogs, cats, snakes and mongooses have been BJP allies in the past. Even now, many of the smaller parties can sit comfortably on either side of the divide, among them the Janata Dal United, Lok Janshakti Party, Upendra Kushwaha's Rashtriya Lok Samta Party, Republican Party of India, PMK, Asom Gana Parishad, All Jharkhand Students Union and the DMDK.

"Shah's views are undemocratic," Gehlot said. "The BJP is saying (it wants a) Congress- mukt Bharat. They won only two Lok Sabha seats (in 1984) but we didn't say we wanted a BJP-mukt Bharat. They have no faith in democracy, they are a fascist force.... Shah's choice of words is a sign of frustration, as being BJP president he is able to sense (the) party's imminent downfall, which he himself has orchestrated with his low level of politics, devoid of morals and values."