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As the political temperature rose in Delhi, most political parties were engaged in deep and wide discussions on future alliances days before the Election Comission is tipped to announce the schedule for the next Lok Sabha elections.
In north India, the formal induction of former UP Chief Minister Kalyan Singh into the BJP has created an important and additional pole of power in the party. Singh has dissolved his Jan Kranti party, created primarily as a forum for his son Rajveer, and has become vice president in the BJP.
Sources in the party say there is no leader of the stature of Kalyan Singh who has such a comprehensive political understanding of UP and the party in the state. Both BJP Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and his lieutenant in UP, Amit Shah are relying heavily on Singh’s inputs in candidate selection. They feel that Singh’s return will galvanise the party worker who associates the BJP with the Ram Mandir movement and get him out on the streets.
The BJP is also trying for the impossible – uniting the two factions of the Shiv Sena. Although Sena was the first ally of the BJP, former BJP chief Nitin Gadkari has held some meetings with Maharashtra Navnirman Sena leader Raj Thackeray in Mumbai. This is a throwback to groupism and alliances within the BJP: it was Pramod Mahajan, the man the BJP rank and file envied as well as hated, who was reponsible for tying up the alliance. That relationship was taken forward by his brother in law, Gopinath Munde. However, Nitin Gadkari, former BJP President and an important Maharashtra figure, feels BJP should try to unite the two factions or at least render one harmless for the purposes of the Lok Sabha election.
Shiv Sena today said if a senior leader from BJP supports Raj or Sharad Pawar, it can affect the alliance.
"It can affect the 'Mahayuti' (grand alliance) if a senior leader from BJP meets Raj Thackeray and NCP chief Sharad Pawar," Sena spokesperson Sanjay Raut said.
Gadkari, who is said to enjoy a good rapport with Raj Thackeray, had yesterday met the latter at a suburban five-star hotel, triggering speculation that the saffron party is trying to win over the MNS chief into NDA for upcoming elections even as he said there is no reason for Shiv Sena to be annoyed by his meeting with Raj.
The Congress is also trying to tie up with as many parties in the north and south as possible but is meeting with limited success.
A day after the Telangana Rashtriya Samiti refused to merge with the Congress, efforts are on to cajole and placate them into a seat-adjustment arrangement. The problem is, the rank and file of the Congress, especially in Telangana, are bitterly opposed to the ascendency of K Chandrashekhar Rao, the most important TRS leader, who will settle for nothing less than the chief minister’s chair in the new state.
For a state (Andhra Pradesh) from where Congress used to bag the highest number of Lok Sabha seats, Congress sources say the party is now hoping to atleast ensure that an electoral understanding with the TRS would atleast net the 17 seats in the Telangana region.
After the DMK parted ways with the UPA miffed with the government over the Sri Lankan Tamil issue, the Congress had been hoping to renew its alliance with the DMK patriarch Karunanidhi in Tamil Nadu before the polls. However DMK has reportedly rejected overtures from the Congress camp with Stalin even declining to meet the Congress President Sonia Gandhi.
The Congress fate in Bihar too is on shaky ground. With practically little political base whatsover in the state, its dreams of stitching up a three party alliance in the state has run aground, after Ramvilas Paswan led LJP moved over to the BJP camp. Its talks with RJD chief Laloo Prasad Yadav is inconclusive as an impatient Laloo Yadav has served it an ultimatum and an offer of just 11 of the 40 seats in the fray. Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi is reportedly not too keen on an alliance with the RJD and if some are to be believed the Congress could just go it alone like last time 2009. It managed to win only two seats in the state but the final call is yet to be taken on this deal.
The season of deals could still see a few more twists and turns with the secular–communal divide giving way to strange bedfellows in the quest for the magic 273.
