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| Congress, coming at its own? | | |
As Lok Sabha elections come closer, the political realignment has begun. The leader of the present ruling alliance, the Congress is apparently thinking on two lines –get as much seats to become single largest party and no alliances at the national level. Such a scenario seems difficult in the era of coalitions which have become a reality in the Indian politics –may that be at Central or State level. The Congress is still confident of coming at its own and will hope to do this on the strength of convincing the people that it has given them a good five years as the head of the UPA. But any party worth its salt knows that playfield prizes are not enough to win elections. The coalition era has come about precisely because sectional interests have sprung up everywhere and their political articulation is such as to successfully challenge parties like the Congress that seek to pitch their appeal as being beyond caste, class and region. So, has the Congress Working Committee been foolhardy in announcing that it will not seek a pre-election national-level alliance with other parties? Hardly. In reality, the party’s top brass is not eschewing partnerships. They are only saying they will take it state by state, and that the getting together with others is more likely to be in the nature of seat adjustments. Essentially, these will be marriages of convenience with no automatic commitment — there is to be no common manifesto with any other party — to form a government together, should they have the numbers. It may be recalled that this is exactly what it was like in the last general election. The UPA coalition was a post-election entity, unlike the BJP-led NDA. This strategy gives the Congress certain advantages. It will not be duty-bound to back parties smaller than it to form government, or to support any of them to head it as was the case in the post-Narasimha Rao interregnum. Equally, however, other parties too will have no obligation to team up with the Congress in a bid for power if the grass looks greener on the NDA side. The Congress would also reckon that its strategy will help it ward off demands for seats from current UPA allies like Sharad Pawar’s NCP and Mulayam Singh’s SP in states where the Congress has clout and these allies are piggy-backers. In any case, Congress ally NCP has shown few qualms jumping over the UPA fence to engage the Left in seat-adjustment talks. Numbers are important, and yet politics can’t be reduced to numbers. There is the question of credo, although in the coalition era this is not at a premium. Nevertheless, it will be said that after sharing power with many parties for five years, the Congress was unable to provide them the glue that makes them all stick together in an election. Perhaps the limitation is not that of the Congress alone. The real problem may be that there is no central idea today that binds parties together. Should the Congress again emerge as the first party in Parliament and be in need of allies, it can’t count on the Left this time around. Is "youth" then an antidote to this potential problem, as Rahul Gandhi seems to think? Does youth equal victory in the political arena? No one has done the sums before.
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