‘Grand alliance’ a pipedream?

Shahira Naim in Lucknow & Jitendra K Shrivastava in Patna

If politics is the art of the possible, then it also makes strange bedfellows. Sadly, the country’s leading socialists know it best. How else can you explain Mulayam Singh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party’s U-turn in the presidential polls, plumping for BJP’s Ram Nath Kovind? And also the stern stance of the JD-U in Bihar, where Nitish Kumar has put alliance partner Lalu Prasad on notice following CBI raids? The Right, as they say, has conspiratorial calculations aimed at 2019 Lok Sabha polls. But who is to blame? What is unusual is modern socialists’ suicidal knack even before ‘Mahagathbandhan’ (grand alliance) against the BJP takes roots. 

First, Uttar Pradesh. It remains to be seen if the Samajwadi Party national president Akhilesh Yadav takes any disciplinary action against father and Lok Sabha MP Mulayam Singh Yadav and uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav (MLA) for voting for Kovind instead of the UPA’s Meira Kumar. Speaking in Mainpuri on May 7, 2017 Mulayam had said: “The alliance with the Congress in recent UP assembly elections is behind the worst-ever poll debacle and the poor state of the Samajwadi Party in UP. Efforts should be made to strengthen the SP. Congress left no stone unturned to ruin my life. Congress did its best to frame me in false cases yet Akhilesh forged an alliance with it.” It was a giveaway for Mulayam’s decision on presidential polls. 

The CBI disproportionate assets cases continue to hang like Damocles sword over Mulayam, and he would not like to spend his twilight years in jail. He also did not want to be seen seconding son Akhilesh Yadav’s alliance with the Congress and other opposition parties in supporting a common presidential candidate leading up to a larger opposition understanding before 2019.

But Mulayam and Shivpal are virtually isolated within the new Akhilesh Yadav-led SP. Nonetheless, they still do have potential to create despair and confusion in the ranks and files. However, sans Mulayam the likelihood of BSP and SP strategically working together has increased. It is not as if there has been a change of heart. It is now a question of survival in the face of an overpowering BJP revival that threatens to sweep away the two regional parties.

And the less said about Congress — ‘the weekend party’— the better. The people at the helm of affairs in UP are busy in the national capital and often come to Lucknow during weekends. Surviving in the heartland of Indian politics is more than a 24x7 job; weekenders really don’t stand a chance.

In Bihar…

Lalu is livid over CBI registering a case of corruption against him, his wife Rabri Devi and his son and Bihar’s deputy chief minister Tejaswi Prasad Yadav. The investigating agency carried out raids at Lalu’s residence in Patna early this month. Lalu claims the raid at his residence and Enforcement Directorate raids at his daughter and Rajya Sabha member Misa Bharti and her husband Shailesh Kumar was the fallout of his grand alliance solidarity. 

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Sah plotted against us. The BJP fears RJD is capable of uniting secular forces against it and stop its victory chariot in 2019 as we did in Bihar election,” says the RJD Chief.

A war of words among allies of grand alliance started after Chief Minister and JD-U chief Nitish Kumar announced to support NDA’s presidential pick Kovind. Lalu backed Meira Kumar, describing her ‘Bihar-ki-beti’. He termed Nitish’s decision as a ‘historic blunder.’ 

The RJD thinks the BJP is strategically setting up ground for 2019 polls. “That’s why the BJP has either demolished or weakened the secular forces across the country,” says a party insider. “The BJP wants Tejaswi to resign or JD-U move away from grand alliance. The party even offered support to JD-U if it withdrew and the government fell. But the BJP won’t be successful.”

Nitish maintained studied silence over CBI raids as BJP escalated its demand of Tejaswi’s resignation as his name figures in CBI’s FIR. Again a war of words surfaced between the ruling alliance partners. The JD-U asked Tejaswi to clear his stand in public domain over corruption charges. Instead of clarification, Tejaswi said that he won’t resign. 

Nitish has backed Modi’s demonetization and the surgical strikes, keeping his allies on tenterhooks. On his part, Modi applauded Nitish’s prohibition drive. Before Nitish left a 17-year alliance with NDA in June 2013, he had also voted for UPA’s presidential pick Pranab Mukherjee.