Trying to be kingmakers, regional parties fizzled out in '09
The year 2009 saw dreams of regional parties to become kingmakers fizzling out and the third Front led by Left turning out to be a non-entity, mostly due to the resurgence of Congress.
BSP chief Mayawati nurtured hopes of prime ministership and Samajwadi Party's Mulayam Singh Yadav thought of dictating terms to Congress in Uttar Pradesh -- only to finally offer unconditional support to Congress-led UPA-2 at the Centre. SP's plans of joining hands with Kalyan Singh also backfired.
The CPI-M led Left parties suffered a severe set back in their bastions of West Bengal and Kerala, making them an insignificant grouping in the national politics.
JD-S chief H D Deve Gowda's dreams of re-entering national politics were shattered by the dismal performance of the third front in the elections. Fourth front constituents RJD and LJP, which cobbled up a grouping along with SP even while being part of the UPA, suffered an electoral drubbing in Bihar.
The anti-Congress and anti-BJP third front saw the participation of Left, TDP, JD(S), BSP, AIADMK, TRS, Haryana Janhit Congress and even Biju Janata Dal, which detached itself from BJP in Orissa. Except BJD, all others could not make an electoral impact.
In the May Lok Sabha elections, the mandate was for Congress-led UPA. After salvaging the UPA government in July 2008 during the confidence vote over the nuclear deal, SP expected the Congress to agree to its seat-sharing terms and conditions.
However, as the year unveiled, a virtual race started between SP and Congress with both the parties coming out with a list of their candidates for Uttar Pradesh. The wrangling over seat-sharing ended up with Congress going it alone in the state and SP stitching up the fourth front.
Hoping to clinch the prestigious Lucknow seat, SP nominated actor Sanjay Dutt, only to be replaced by actress Nafisa Ali later when Supreme Court refused to stay his conviction by a TADA court. With Kalyan Singh quitting BJP, SP inducted his son Rajvir as party general secretary.
While the SP did not field candidates from Rae Bareli and Amethi, sitting seats of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi respectively, Congress stayed away from Mainpuri and Kannauj (seats of Mulayam and his son Akhilesh Yadav).
Meanwhile, the BSP which had ruled out any alliance in its stronghold of Uttar Pradesh, joined hands with the third front, stitched together by Deve Gowda and TDP's N Chandrababu Naidu.
With all pre-poll analysis projecting a fractured mandate, the third front, along with Left, emerged as a threat to both Congress and BJP.
The BSP did not enter into a seat-sharing alliance with any of the parties of the Front and fielded own candidates in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
Meanwhile, as its alliance talks with Congress crashing down, the SP started hobnobbing with Lalu Prasad's RJD and Ram Vilas Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party.
But when the poll results were announced, Congress and its allies bagged 262 seats and the third front turned out to be a damp squib securing just 80 seats. The fourth front won 27 seats with SP managing 23 and RJD bagging a paltry four seats. Paswan's LJP drew a blank.
The BSP won 21 seats in all, including one in Rewa (Madhya Pradesh) as the party finished a disappointing third in UP after SP and Congress. SP, is, however the third largest party in Lok Sabha after Congress (206) and BJP (116).
For SP General Secretary Amar Singh, the party's triumph in Rampur, came as a vindication when Jaya Prada won despite bitter campaigning against her by SP rebel Azam Khan.
Khan, once considered the Muslim face of SP, was unhappy with its new-found closeness with Babri masjid demolition accused Kalyan Singh and also for having been ignored for a ticket in favour of Jaya Prada. Khan was subsequently expelled from the party.
Gowda again tried his hands at stitching an 18-party alliance for Maharashtra Assembly polls with the Left, SP, LJP and Republican Party of India, but lost the battle.
SP won four of the nine seats secured by the alliance, even as the Congress-NCP alliance retained power. BSP, which decided to go alone in Maharashtra, failed to win any segment.
In Haryana, where BSP's vote share in Lok Sabha polls was 21 per cent, it managed to win only one seat.
Meanwhile, in bypolls to 11 Assembly seats and the lone LS seat of Firozabad in UP, Congress trounced SP in Mulayam's pocket borough. BSP secured nine assembly seats.
Eventually, the SP dumped Kalyan and with the Liberhan Commission indicting Kalyan in Masjid demolition, the former UP chief minister was back to his belligerent self.