UPA gets unconditional support from SP, BSP

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today managed the impossible feat of getting both the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) to offer unconditional support to the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, which will be sworn in on Friday.

BSP supremo Mayawati told reporters that not only did Manmohan Singh himself speak to her, but also “called me his younger sister and sought my help in forming a secular government”. Thus, all the toxicity and poison of the election campaign was put aside and unconditional support of all the UP parties, barring the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies, were secured by the UPA, which is now in an unassailable position in the Lok Sabha.

The BSP and SP detest each other and their social base, too, are ranged against each other. Both are in the race to woo the Muslim vote.

In fact, with 23 MPs of the SP, which has already informed President Pratibha Patil that it would support the UPA in Parliament, and 21 MPs of the BSP, the UPA is now better-placed to push Constitutional amendments that require two-thirds of the members present and voting in both Houses. Day-to-day business in the Lok Sabha is likely to be a breeze, making the job of a parliamentary affairs minister much easier than in the last government.

Including six independents who have already said they will support to the ruling alliance, the UPA now stands at 314 in the 545-member Lok Sabha. Offers of support from other parties seem to be pouring in with no strings attached.

Thus, the apprehension of a set of party managers — worried about Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee’s somewhat capricious style of politics and the UPA’s numerical vulnerability, should she decide to walk out — have been allayed.