A premature call to arms

The swearing-in ceremony of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee became another occasion to bring out for airing the moth-balled concept of regional parties putting up a combined challenge to the national party ruling at the Centre. The list of attendees and those who chose to spurn Ms Banerjee’s invite tells the tale of internal jealousies, fears of turf poaching and the singular lust for power that will stymie any common endeavour to challenge the BJP. The political constituencies of those present at the swearing-in — Farooq Abdullah, Nitish Kumar, Lalu Prasad and Arvind Kejriwal — are insulated from the ebb and rise of Mamata Banerjee’s political fortunes. Naturally, they spoke the loudest about a secular front. 

But the Left parties and the Congress gave a wide berth to the occasion. The Left held its counsel but its boycott was predictable. The Congress continues to invest hope in Rahul Gandhi as the prime ministerial candidate, and was outright dismissive of the front noises. Its stand was not appreciated by former Congress leaders, who, like Mamata, have set up their own outfits. Uttar Pradesh, next in line for elections, has two powerful regional parties. The BSP has no inclination of making sacrifices in its home base to accommodate allies while the SP tends to play to a tune not conducive to alliance politics. 

Thrice in the past, regional voices had pooled their seats to cobble up a ruling arrangement in New Delhi. Each time they were short of a simple majority and had to lean on a national party for life-support. This deprived the arrangement of any high-minded principle of regional forces joining hands against the centralising impulses of national parties and reordering of policies tailored to the requirements of each specific region. The three governments collapsed amidst name calling and worsened economic indicators. That contradiction remains relevant today: a regional party-led arrangement should contain a national party but the numbers game in Parliament is such that it will have to be a UPA or NDA-type arrangement to make it last a full term