Dec 14, 1998
|
|
|
|
THIRD FRONT Faultline sonia The CPI(M) is thrilled by the Congress' sucess but Laloo and Mulayam are worried about its revival in the Hindi belt. A report on the Disunited Front. By Javed M Ansari
The third front's reaction to the Congress' victory in the recent assembly polls reflects its disparate nature.
In sum, as the Indian polity moves inexorably towards bipolarity the smaller parties are being forced to choose between anti-Congressism and anti-BJPism. This should be clear to the third front which contested 350 of the 589 assembly seats in Delhi, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, for which elections were held on November 25, and won only 11. The first indications of change have come from the RLM. Mulayam, who was stressing a pro-Congress line till recently, has reverted to the shrill ways of the past: "We regard the BJP and the Congress as two sides of the same coin. From now on we will be equidistant from both." Mulayam has reason to worry. The Congress' decisive triumph in Delhi and Madhya Pradesh could spill over to contiguous Uttar Pradesh, his battleground. Since it lost power in 1990, the Congress has been a non-entity in Uttar Pradesh. In the 1998 Lok Sabha elections it reached its nadir, winning none of the state's 85 seats. Its position is scarcely better in Bihar, home to Laloo and 54 Lok Sabha seats. Even so, in the November 25 polls, the Congress finished second in the Agra assembly by-election. Mulayam's Samajwadi Party (SP) lost its deposit. This indicates a possible Congress rebirth in the Hindi heartland. If this be so, Muslims there may be willing to give the Congress another chance -- taking away one pillar of the RLM's Muslim-Yadav edifice. Ironically, the RLM may have contributed to this rehabilitation of the Congress. Rues a senior JD leader: "The cardinal error that Laloo and Mulayam made was that they gave a clean chit to the Congress. This prompted Muslims in certain parts to do away with the interface and deal directly with them in some states." Now it is sinking in that the third force was at its strongest as the United Front. Says Amar Singh, SP MP: "We must put aside our pride and prejudices to revive the third force." Somnath Chatterjee, CPI(M) MP is dismissive: "The Vajpayee government must go. We can't wait till eternity for the formation of the third force." A Congress revival poses no immediate threat to the communists who rule West Bengal -- where the principal enemy, the Trinamool Congress, is on the backfoot having lost two by-elections in the past month -- and Tripura and Kerala, where no polls are due in the near future. In the coming 15 months, a number of big states face assembly elections. In Karnataka and Maharashtra, the Congress could do with the third front's help in taking on the BJP. In Bihar, unless the Congress allies with Laloo, a triangular contest may only help the BJP-Samata Party combine. So these elections will be preceded by hectic bargaining: 1998 ended as the Congress' year; 1999, the Yadavs hope, will be negotiated on the third front's terms. |
|
Write to us | Subscriptions | Syndication | Issue Contents BUSINESS TODAY | INDIA TODAY PLUS | COMPUTERS TODAY © Living Media India Ltd |
 |
 |
Clarity and unified action have never been the
strong points with the "third front". The term itself is among the more nebulous
entities in the confusing whirl that is Indian politics. Loosely, it is defined as a
conglomeration of every non-Congress, non-BJP grouping in the country. The communists and
the caste-based parties of Laloo Prasad Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav as well as the
Janata Dal (JD) are a constant presence. Beyond that, everything is negotiable. 
