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BJP on the upswing : inept Congress, Left help saffron rise |
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The BJP is making a strong pitch for power after its National Council meeting, which saw its prime-ministerial candidate Lal Krishan Advani projecting himself as a moderate, apparently to gather the support of regional parties in and outside the National Democratic Alliance, NDA. Upbeat on account of its victories in state Assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, and earlier in Uttarakhand and with ally Akali Dal in Punjab, the party has chalked out an aggressive campaign plan to keep up the momentum till next year's general elections, which will decide the successor to the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government now ruling the country with the outside support of the Left parties.
The BJP strategy became clear at last week's national Council meeting : project a moderate face, do not emphasise the Hindutva agenda, while not giving it up, in order to get more regional allies in states, where
the party or its NDA allies are weak.
At this stage, the NDA allies appear to be playing ball, not queering the pitch on the issue of the BJP's Hindutva agenda, though many of them are aggressively 'secular' in their approach and ideology. This is apparent from their acceptance of BJP leader Advani as the NDA's prime-ministerial candidate, without much ado.
The Congress, which heads the UPA, says that it is getting its plans in place for the Lok Sabha elections, but the urgency appears to be lacking. Apart from project ing Rahul Gandhi as the party's young face to attract the youth, the Congress has failed to spell out how it is going to attract public support to retain power in 2009.
There is no indication of any serious effort to build credible leadership at the local and regional level in the states. The public perception that all decisions in the Congress are taken by the party high command or a coterie is not doing any good for the party image. Rahul Gandhi has himself admitted that decisions are seldom taken at the local level in the party, and there is a culture of leaving all crucial decisions to the party high command. But on the ground, nothing much has changed, despite Rahul Gandhi's assertion that the situation has to change.
On the government front, the Manmohan Singh government's credibility has been severely dented by the about-turn on the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal,
enforced by the Left. It does not help that the Prime Minister had staked his prestige on the deal, terming it as the biggest achievement of his political career.
The way things have emerged has lent credence to the BJP charge that the UPA is a rudderless outfit presided over by an indecisive Prime Minister, who can
at best be called a CEO, not a leader. The BJP accusation that Dr. Manmohan Singh does not enjoy any authority and is just a puppet in the hands of those
with real authority behind the curtains-Congress president Sonia Gandhi and CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat- does not add to either the government
or Congress credibility.
The Left decision to build a third alternative - non-Congress, non-BJP - increases manifold the troubles of the Congress, already reeling under the
impact of Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati's move to make forays into other states, after 'conquering' Uttar Pradesh. The damage which Mayawati's BSP can cause to the Congress is clear from the results of the Assembly elections in Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
The third alternative may not be able to come to power on its own but it is certainly going to harm the Congress prospects in the Lok Sabha elections due in about 15 months' time.
There is no indication so far that the Congress has drawn up any credible strategy to tackle the challenges ahead - a resurgent BJP and the Left-UNPA combine in the making. The gainer in the circumstances can only be the BJP-led NDA.
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