Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley

February 26: As the Opposition walked out of the Lok Sabha to protest the fuel price hike announced in the budget, it was not their rhetoric that left as much of an impression as Sushma Swaraj and Gurudas Dasgupta holding hands in solidarity.

March 8: The BJP persuades the Left to agree to a discussion before voting on the women’s bill. Since then, the two have synchronised their strategies, sometimes in tandem with the government.

March 9: Sonia Gandhi’s grit to push the women’s bill through grabbed visual and mind-space on Tuesday. But another picture that vied for attention was that of Sushma and Brinda Karat in a celebratory clinch.

New Delhi, March 10: Nobody in the BJP or the Left seriously thought these optics, suggesting a new camaraderie, would end in something substantive.

But if the first leg of the budget session reinforced Sonia’s quiet determination to push her larger agendas through against strident opposition, it was equally remarkable for another thing: the BJP’s bid to shed the image of being an obstructionist Opposition.

Having a working relationship with the Left and other anti-Congress entities was part of the game plan.

“We want to put an end to the chapter of untouchability and negativism. Opposition for the sake of it, that kind of thing,” a BJP Rajya Sabha MP said.

“Of course, nobody in their right minds will think we are about to have a lasting arrangement and relationship with the Left and the socialists. Our partnership will be limited to issues. On certain issues on which we think alike, we will take on the UPA. There will be other issues on which we might have an independent stand, the Left might have a different position. We are free to pursue those as well,” the MP added.

That the leaders of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha, Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj, are not overtly identified with the Ayodhya era and aggressive Hindutva has made it easier for the others to do business with the BJP. “These leaders have a softer image than L.K. Advani. If Advani had been at the helm of the parliamentary party, we would have thought twice before doing anything with the BJP,” a Samajwadi Party MP said.

The quest for an image makeover prompted the BJP to discreetly convey to Lalu Prasad and Mulayam Singh Yadav that they would not support any move to topple the government.

“It’s a 14-year-old commitment and we would have been caught out had we indulged in foul play or deal-making. That’s why we played with a straight bat. We may have opposed the procedure for passing it but we voted for the bill,” a leader said.

However, the BJP also tried to make capital of the loss of “niceties and properties” when the women’s bill was passed amid the eviction of the disrupters.

Sources said its members told Congress leaders yesterday that rather than evict the seven who were disrupting the House, it was better to use the strategy the Maharashtra legislature did against the MLAs of Raj Thackeray’s MNS when they held up proceedings.

“They were allowed to tire themselves out in 48 hours but the government refused to listen,” a BJP leader said.

Jaitley and the CPM’s Sitaram Yechury advised the government to recall the seven evicted MPs and permit them to cast their votes in recognition of the “principle that dissenters should have their vote too”. That was turned down.

However, the BJP’s concern for the finer procedural points cloaked a larger political objective: Lalu Prasad and Mulayam were valuable allies and deserving of its empathy at a time the Congress had thrown them to the margins.