Is time for coalition politics on?

The recent results in the by elections held in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have sent out strong message to the political parties and voters in India.  The most important one being for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The “Modi Wave of 2014” is on decline and the BJP is not invincible, the voters have said it clearly. The results from the Lok Sabha by elections in Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh, which has sent Yogi Adityanath to the Lok Sabha for five consecutive times, tell a lot about the mood of the electorate. They are no longer overawed of the grand success of BJP. Having the Chief Minister from their constituencyGorkarpur and the Deputy Chief Minister from the constituency of Phulpur doesn’t find favor with the voters. The voters have conveyed that they are neither captivated by what the government has to offer nor overawed of its grand success in State Assembly elections that were held barely a year ago. The biggest message is that BJP can be given a tough competition however the opposition will have to change the way they are trying to handle it.

The coming together of two political parties namely Samajwadi Party (SP)  led by Akhilesh Yadav and Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) at Gorakpur and Phulpur has given a grand proposal to other parties to come together to take the BJP head on.  However, for such a coalition to happen and deliver a lot would depend on Congress, which fared badly in these by elections. It must read the verdict! Presenting itself and other parties that come together as a front to protect and promote secularism will be just doing the task halfway. Neither can it gain by letting its leader Rahul Gandhi go on an unending visit to various religious sects and temples. The results at the Gujarat Assembly have shown so.

Congress at its plenary session held this week in New Delhi raised the demand for having the next elections through the ballot paper and not the electronic voting machine. This too has come at a wrong time. If the parties are serious about this issue, not only should the Congress raise it but also all the parties and that too at the right forum and not just at the party conclaves. Congress needs itself to be counted in for any coalition that seems to be emerging as with miserable 40 plus seats in Lok Sabha it still happens to be the largest opposition party. The Congress Party has been able to register good wins in the by elections held in Rajastan, Madhya Pradesh; has a government in Punjab and the show in the assembly elections in Gujarat was the best in many elections, it has to do a lot more to stay in contention.

BJP too is on a sticky ground with alliance partners now showing an open dissent. With Chadrababu Naidu’s TeleguDesam Party (TDP) ending its alliance with the BJP, the entire south of the India is now ruled by non BJP parties.  Assuming that the same would continue till May 2019, when India goes to polls for Lok Sabha, the reach of the Congress party would make it better suited than any other to respond to the aspirations of people of South India. However, both Congress and BJP will get to taste the waters at elections in Karnatka soon, and the outcome would give a boost to either of party for elections in 2019.

The Congress is no stranger to forging and running successful alliances. In 1992, the then Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao led a successful minority government with Congress allies. Similar experience of alliance politics was repeated from 2004 to 2014 that was termed as the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.  However, Congress reputation of supporting an alliance has not been remarkable. The experiments with former non-Congress Prime Ministers H.D. Deve Gowda in 1996 and I.K. Gujral in 1997 are examples where the Congress had abandoned the alliance. All such factors will be in play and in consideration by various parties when they plan to come together to fight the BJP in days to come, and the era of coalition politics seems all set to come back and make its presence felt.