coalition politics

The vote in the recently concluded elections for stability is more of a negative vote for politicians who exhibited their arrogance during poll campaigning. The Left, which enjoyed power without responsibility, received a drubbing. The Lalus and the Mulayams suddenly discovered that they were the dispensers of people’s choice and wanted to treat the Congress as their poor cousin. Mr. Paswan went a step further to declare that the Congress cannot survive without his support.

In Kerala, a septuagenarian leader wanted his son to don the mantle at the cost of the party and was willing to break the party to show his superiority. Another leader presumed that her new-found love for Eelam would make the people to forget her earlier stand and that she would be given votes unequivocally. Yet another leader presumed that he could make his side the winner and put a premium on his association, not to speak of the one who shouted from the rooftop that he was the sole custodian of the Dravidian spirit.

Senior Congress leaders are meeting with key pre-poll partners, the Trinamool Congress and the DMK, on distribution of Cabinet berths.Both parties are reportedly eying plum portfolios and more ministries. The market of bargain has started.

The Congress is under pressure from its ally DMK which is seeking several ministerial berths and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee reportedly insisting on getting one more ministerial portfolio than what the DMK gets. While the DMK has won 18 Lok Sabha seats, TMC has got 19.

A tussle is reportedly on wresting the Railway Ministry, held by RJD chief Lalu Prasad who is unlikely to find a berth in Manmohan Singh's second innings. Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee is eyeing the Railway portfolio as also the DMK.

Singh was appointed Prime Minister on Wednesday for a second consecutive term after the UPA coalition staked its claim to form the government with the backing of 322 MPs. Swearing-in is to take place on May 22.

In view of the comfortable numbers the coalition has in the 543-member Lok Sabha, the President has not asked the Prime Minister to prove his strength in the House. Parliament is likely to be convened on June two.

Post-election, the Samajwadi Party, the RJD, the BSP and other parties are only too eager to give unconditional support to the UPA government. A lion’s share of the media space and time are taken up by the allies and supporting parties seeking cabinet berths.

With the Prime Minister due to be sworn in on Friday, all sides are working overtime to first finalise the share of parties in the Council of Ministers and then decide on the portfolios. In all likelihood, the Prime Minister will be sworn in with only a few Cabinet-level Ministers representing the key allies, and the full Council of Ministers will be in place later.

Is it not time to enact the right to recall to pull back candidates for non-performance and those who switch alliances post-election. Only then will our political parties learn to respect the people’s mandate.

Too Many Prime Ministers

The General Election 2009 is not dominated by any personality. It is the complete absence of a figure such as Barack Obama, Sheikh Hasina, Indira Gandhi or even an Atal Bihari Vajpayee. We have leaders, but no one who drives popular choices at the national level. There are so many Prime Ministerial candidates in the battle ground of 2009 elections.

On January 24th, 2009, Manmohan Singh underwent cardiac bypass surgery at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. Following the surgery, speculation of alternate PM candidates arose both within the Congress and amongst coalition partners. In an attempt to quell such speculations, Sonia Gandhi announced that Manmohan Singh is the UPA coalition's Prime Ministerial candidate for the 2009 elections. United Progressive Alliance is projecting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as the Prime Ministerial candidate in the elections. Following the August 2008 confidence vote victory for the current government, Congress is seeing the right person in Manmohan Singh to lead it to the battle field of the 2009 elections. He is having Clean image, better economic knowledge and is acceptable to all, but weak leadership can go against him if Congress couldn't come up as single largest party.

National Democratic Alliance The main opposition, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its coalition partners in the National Democratic Alliance, announced that their candidate for prime minister would be BJP party leader Lal Krishna Advani, the Leader of the Opposition. On January 23, 2008, leaders from BJP and other NDA parties convened to officially elect him their candidate. No other party or alliance has announced a prime ministerial candidate. Strong leadership quality is his strength, but less faith of minorities can go against him.

Third Front a motley group of regional parties, as well as the Communist parties, have been striving to form a third front to counter the BJP-led and Congress-led alliances. Among the members are the United National Progressive Alliance, India's Left parties and the Bahujan Samaj Party. Once again, the media has speculated that Mayawati, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, could potentially be projected as the front's Prime Ministerial candidate, but no official move has taken place yet. If Mayawati's party can win enough seats, she has openly stated that she would be willing to take the support of the national parties to become Prime Minister. The factor of being a 'Dalit' can go with her. Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar has indicated that he is also a possible Prime Ministerial candidate post elections.

Another possibility arising in last few days could be the 'Secular Front' formed by Lalu Prasad Yadav's Rastriya Janta Dal (RJD), Mulayam Singh Yadav's Samajwadi Party (SP) and Ram Vilas Paswan's Lok Jansakti Party (LJP). Any of them could arise as the candidate for top job depending upon their seats. Lalu and Mulayam is having those 'skills' and experience while Paswan is again a 'Dalit' leader.