CONGRESS CAN ONLY WATCH FRONTMEN

By M H Ahssan

Bhubaneswar meeting part of an effort to make a cohesive anti-Cong, anti-BJP alliance; Lucknow meeting of Lalu, Mulayam & Paswan aimed at arresting revival of GOP in cowbelt.

Alate cut may be a good shot to play in cricket but not in politics. Sensible politics is all about anticipating danger and tackling it early. The Congress seems to have missed this key principle while deciding to go it alone in politically-crucial states and downgrading its ties with allies such as NCP.

There was some recognition in the Congress of the fallout of its adventurism. On the eve of two important events — one in Bhubaneswar and the other in Lucknow — home minister P Chidambaram, who was fielded as a party spokesman on Thursday, said it would be better if NCP chief Sharad Pawar did not share the dais with “parties opposed to the Congress.”

While the Bhubaneswar meeting is part of an effort to make a cohesive anti-Congress, anti-BJP alliance out of the odd parties, the Lucknow meeting of Yadav chieftains Lalu Prasad and Mulayam Singh and Mr Ram Vilas Paswan is aimed at fashioning a strategy to arrest the revival of the Congress in the cowbelt.

The Congress leadership has been using varied expressions to explain the sudden loss of alliance quotient. Pranab Mukherjee has been describing the decision of railway minister Lalu Yadav to disband the UPA in Bihar as shocking and Congress leaders are training the gun on Mulayam Singh for the rupture in the ‘secular’ alliance in Uttar Pradesh. Implicit in them is a realisation that election prospects of the Congress are getting cloudy.

Mr Pawar on Thursday attempted to create the right atmospherics for a giving shape to the Third Front by praising the contribution of the Left in the four-andhalf years that it had backed the Manmohan Singh government. “But for their support, many of the key policy initiatives of the UPA government would not have been possible,” Mr Pawar said.

The partners cannot be faulted for charting independent course as the trigger for the current crisis came from the Congress’ end. The decision to go it alone was ratified by CWC after the leadership was pushed into a make believe world by durbari politicians. The argument was that a contest without the baggage of Yadavs and Pawars will give the party an opportunity to reinvent itself and regain public confidence.

UPA partners, who are wary of any interventions into the space occupied by them in their respective areas of influence, read the signals correctly. These regional players already have strong challengers like Mayawati and Nitish Kumar and any attempt of Congress to stage a comeback can be only at the cost of their interests.
That the Congress is trapped in Delhi is evident from its post-UPA disintegration campaign strategy. At the meetings addressed by Rahul Gandhi in Bihar on Wednesday, he concentrated his attack on NDA. The electorate can naturally turn around and ask if the purpose was only to defeat NDA, what was the reason for fighting solo in Bihar.

The Congress is obviously hoping that the anti-BJP glue that was binding UPA partners for the past five years will regain its effectiveness after polls. But that can happen only if Congress has the necessary numbers to be the kingpin of a politically-viable coalition. As of now, prospects of parties like SP submitting itself to the Congress’ wishes look quite bleak. Rhetorical skirmishes between Congress and its partners can only intensify in the days to come.
The lack of a script can prove to be costly for Congress. For, elections are won not by dragging the nation through partisan politics or sweet rhetoric. In the changed circumstances, power will remain distant if a party lacks geographical spread or powerful allies.