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Possibility of hung Parliament? |
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As polling for the Lok Sabha enters the crucial phases, an opinion is forming among political observers that the probability of a hung Parliament is not too far fetched. What at one time looked a cakewalk for Vajpayee in crossing the 272 seats mark, is slowly proving to be a tough target. The media which had initially written off the Congress as a serious contender to power, is revising its opinion.
As Maharashtra gets set for the final second round of polling on April 26, the new Congress alliance partner, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar has claimed that India was moving towards a hung Parliament. He was sure that Atal Bihari Vajpayee will not be able to form the next government with his National Democratic Alliance.
In such a situation, he said: “The million-dollar question is - which way will Mulayam Singh and Mayawati go? Mayawati has been the Chief Minister of UP thrice with the help of the Bharatiya Janata Party. She may extract a price and support them, Pawar argued.
Pawar also pointed out that Mulayam’s government in UP had the tacit support of the BJP. He had accepted a BJP Speaker in the Assembly and that “speaks for itself.” He dismissed Mulayam Singh’s attacks on the BJP during the election campaign. What Mulayam does after the election was more important, the Maharashtra leader felt.
Pawar also pointed out that his difference with Sonia was only over a foreign-born person leading the country. “She has said that she will not impose herself.
So we will see what happens after the elections,” he said. As of now, Pawar’s target is Vajpayee and his government. In all his campaign meetings, he has been accusing Vajpayee of deviating from the Nehruvian path both in the domestic and international arena. Pawar’s primary focus were the anti-people, anti-farmer and anti-worker policies of the NDA. “The number of suicides of farmers has been the highest since Independence under the NDA regime.”
He charged that sugar mills were closing down because the Vajpayee government was importing sugar from Pakistan; the cotton farmers were in trouble because of cotton imports; mangoes were being imported from South Africa and Australia; grapes from Australia; tamarind from Thailand; and apples from New Zealand. Maharashtra is a major sugar, cotton and grape producing state and this has touched a chord with the audience.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist), which mainly represents states of West Bengal and Tripura in Parliament, is also not ruling out the possibility of a hung Parliament. It has said in the event of the alternative coalitions failing to get a majority to form a government at the Centre, the leaders of the alliance should sit together to formulate a minimum programme and elect a leader. “Our party is thinking of a situation similar to 1996 (United Front government), where many parties had no pre-poll alliances and later sat together to formulate a minimum programme. We will consult and take a decision on who will head the coalition”, senior Poltiburo member Prakash Karat, told newsmen.
Karat said during the last few days, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had been talking about having new allies, which only indicated that BJP and its allies were “badly slipping”. Envisaging a “likely reversal and seeing the possibility of BJP and allies falling short of majority, the Prime Minister is talking about new post-poll allies”, he claimed.
Referring to Vajpayee’s remarks about getting tired of running a 22-party coalition, Karat said it “clearly indicates what it (BJP) feels about its partners. It is a signal that in future BJP will not even show the elementary courtesy to its allies. “ It appeared that the NDA allies were surrendering to the BJP. Earlier, they were only compromising, Karat has pointed out.
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