Sharing The Big Pie

The United National Progressive Alliance might be in trouble due to a split even though some sections tend to take an exaggerated view and see it as if the nation has been hit by a gargantuan political disaster when it is probably nothing more than a storm in a teacup. It causes no surprise when a few odd pieces hastily stitched together quickly become loose and the best that can be joined under the circumstances is that the pieces do not come apart altogether.

The musical chair-like replacement of the Left parties by the Samajwadi Party in the government camp is no surprise either. There have been sufficient hints in the past few months that the trampling march of the Elephant (Bahujan Samaj Party) in politically important UP ( 80 Lok Sabha seats) would see a realignment of political forces in the state as the old enemies as Congress and Samajwadi Party, face equal threat from Mayawati.

The constituents of the UNPA have accused the Samajwadi Party of betrayal and warned it of loss of Muslim vole bank for supporting the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government over the controversial N-deal. These critics have also echoed the Left line that the deal for cooperation with the US is against national interest. Assuming that these charges are correct it will still be impossible for any other constituent of the UNPA to cash in on this criticism in UP and gamer the votes that would have gone to the Samajwadi Party.

The Congress and the Samajwadi Party had polled about 40 percent votes in the last assembly poll despite their big losses. Any division in the secular votes in UP goes against the interest of the Samajwadi Party as well as the Congress with the BSP making inroads into the Muslim vote bank. At the Centre the Samajwadi Parry has been immediately catapulted into the big league
with its strength of 39 members in the Lok Sabha.

Numbers count in politics. Meanwhile, numbers were added with a list of regional parties that are actually built around one family and have strictly regional appeal; parties like the Abdullah family’s national Conference. The UNPA, the Third Front by another name, was touted as a front against the two dominant political forces, the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party. Whether one likes it or not, politics in the country remain polarized around these two parties even as the country is believed to have entered the coalition era. The driving forces behind the idea of resuscitating the Third Front are hoping that they can displace the combinations run by the Congress and the BJP at the Centre. If the voters are angry with the UPA they are more likely to vote the BJP-led coalition to power than the Third Front. This is not to say that the constituents of the Third Front will not ride high in their individual capacity. Political parties in the country are used to working out various permutations among themselves when it helps to get into power or share the big pie.