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Congress reinvents itself |
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With the Election Commission enforced ban on exit polls making the inscrutable ways of the Indian voter even more difficult to decipher, the political parties are in a quandary on preparing for the post-Lok Sabha poll scenario. It is almost certain that none of the three major combines in the race – the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance, UPA, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance, NDA and the third front-Left mixture – would be anywhere near the half way mark. But the gains and losses of the principal players, the Congress in the case of the UPA, the BJP in the NDA and Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party of the third alternative and the CPI (M) in the Left, would have a crucial impact on the wheeling and dealing in the sixth phase of the elections after the results come out on May 16.
While the post poll battle can swing any way, the elections for the 15th Lok Sabha have already had a salutary impact on the fortunes of the country’s oldest political party, the Congress. In most parts of the country, the grand old party is fighting the elections alone, refusing to walk on the crutches of its regional allies like Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal, RJD, and Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party. Significantly, in the states where the Congress has entered into alliances or seat-sharing deals with regional outfits, there are only two key states- Tamil Nadu and West Bengal – where it is the junior partner. In other states like Maharashtra and Kerala, it is either the dominant or senior partner in the state level alliances.
The Congress spurning tie-ups with dominant regional parties like the Samajwadi Party
and the RJD in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand, which send in all 134 members to the 543 seat Lok Sabha, is a move, which opens the possibility of its revival in the key Hindi heartland, where the party has been a marginal player for nearly a quarter century. The strategy of re-building the party base has been devised by general secretary Rahul Gandhi supported by his mother and party president Sonia Gandhi. It is possible that the strategy may not pay off in the short run and may result in the party even losing a few seats in the current elections, but it is expected to pay good dividends in the future. If the Congress succeeds in regaining political space in the Gangetic belt, it will bring about a sea-change in the equations between different parties, and perhaps rewrite the rules of the political game in India.
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