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Rahul’s strategy and Manmohan’s good governance catapult Cong to power again |
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In a result unexpected by both friends and foes, the Congress has stormed back to power at the Centre, proving wrong the prophets of doom, who were forecasting instability in the country. As even Congress leaders looked at the incoming results of the Lok Sabha elections with surprise, the party cruised past the 200 mark in the House, the first time it has happened after 1991. Along with the parties which fought the elections with the Congress, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) has secured over 260 seats in the Lower House of Parliament and should have no difficulty in chalking up the magic figure of 272 required for an absolute majority. But the victory in Lok Sabha elections 2009 is of the Congress and significantly, not of the UPA.
Many of the UPA constituents like Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal and Ramvilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party had broken ranks with the Congress on the question of seat-sharing for the Lok Sabha elections. In Uttar Pradesh also, the Congress had been unable to work out a seat-sharing agreement with Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party, which had been providing outside support to the Manmohan Singh Government after it saved the coalition from collapse during the July 22 confidence vote on the nuclear deal issue. Even other allies like Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party, though part of the UPA, were making noises that the combine’s prime ministerial choice would be decided after the elections.
In the event, the election results have punctured the balloons of political parties and personalities, who were fancying their playing the role of kingmakers after the elections. Even a day before the counting date on May 16, there was talk of various political parties demanding important portfolios in return for their support in government formation.
Two main factors are responsible for the Congress party’s historic show in the elections – projection of Dr. Manmohan Singh as the party’s prime ministerial candidate and Rahul Gandhi’s strategy of going it alone in Uttar Pradesh, which sends 80 members to the Lok Sabha, and the decision to focus on young people while allocating seats and positions in the party organization. Congress president Sonia Gandhi backed Rahul Gandhi’s plans, even though critics at the time said that the party could not afford to go it alone in important states and needed the crutches of dominant regional outfits to make a mark. They have been proved wrong as the Congress has more than doubled its strength in the Lok Sabha from Uttar Pradesh and emerged as the second largest party in the state after the Samajwadi Party.
In Uttar Pradesh as well as Bihar, where the UPA’s regional satraps, Lalu Yadav and Paswan offered only three seats to the Congress out of the total 40, the secular or fourth front has been forced to eat the humble pie. In Bihar, the RJD has secured just four seats against the 25 it had in the 14th Lok Sabha while the Lok Janshakti Party drew a blank. In Uttar Pradesh, the Samajwadi Party’s strength was cut down by one-third while its state rival, Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party was also not able to improve much on its previous tally. Unnerved by the setback, Mayawati has fallen back on her time-tested excuse that the other parties, in this case, the Congress and the Samajwadi Party, ganged up to deny a ‘dalit ki beti’ (daughter of a person belonging to the scheduled castes or dalits) the chance to gain power at the Centre.
The Congress victory is heartening for all those who are looking for the formation of a stable government at the Centre, which is not dependent on the whims and fancies of allies and supporting parties. Hopefully, the Congress would be able to form the next government without much trouble.
But there are challenges also in the emerging scenario for the Congress and the next government at the Centre. Some issues, such as the economic downturn and the threats from across the borders and from within require immediate action. The next government needs to have the vision to take the country forward and tackle fundamental issues such as corruption in all walks of life and a slow moving judicial system, in which, because of its delays, the people are fast losing faith. On the external front, the Government needs to adopt a fresh approach to enable India to occupy its rightful place in the comity of nations. A country of a billion people needs not only a functioning democracy, but also an effective system, which meets the needs of all sections of the people for ‘inclusive’ development.
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