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Assembly, Lok Sabha polls : Major parties intensify search for allies

	September 15, 2008

The two principal political parties in the country, the Congress and the BJP, held brain-storming sessions at the weekend to firm up their plans and strategies for the coming Assembly elections in several states and the bigger battle ahead, the Lok Sabha elections.



Congress in election mode



While directing party leaders to gear up for the year-end assembly polls and the Lok Sabha polls, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Saturday, Sept. 13, asked her party to dispense with the “quota system”’ of ticket distribution and put up a united face.



“We have to change the old practice (of giving tickets to leaders/groups for their supporters)....The selection of candidates should be purely on the basis of merit,” Sonia Gandhi told the extended Congress Working Committee meeting, which was dominated by poll talk and the need to implement the Antony committee report’s recommendation of early declaration of candidates.



Sonia Gandhi attacked the right wing political parties - BJP, RSS, Bajrang Dal, VHP - for launching a “vicious communal campaign” whenever elections were nearing (as in Orissa).



Regional leaders, particularly those from poll-bound states of Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, said they were confident of victory provided there was unity and no infighting. Speakers were of the opinion that the nuclear deal would help the party in the polls.



Exhorting the leaders to debunk the false propaganda launched by the BJP, the Left and other opponents on it, Sonia Gandhi called on them to propagate the UPA’s many landmark achievements.





Bring down BJP government in Rajasthan : Sonia Gandhi



Earlier last week, Congress president Sonia Gandhi kicked off her party’s election campaign in Rajasthan by addressing a rally at Deoli in a pre-dominantly Gujjar area. Speaking at a place near Sohela in Tonk district, where farmers had died in police firing when they were demanding water for irrigation two years ago, she asked the people to get rid of what she called the corrupt and inefficient Vasundhra Raje BJP government in the state.



Indicating the Congress plan to play up the nuclear deal, Sonia Gandhi said the agreement being finalised by the Manmohan Singh Government with the United States is aimed at the progress of the country. She said: “Nobody can deny the importance of energy security for the country. The country cannot progress without electricity.”



The Congress president said that no amount of criticism would deter the UPA Government from going ahead with the deal. She said that whenever the Congress party had taken a big step in the interest of the nation, the opposition had made false allegations against it.



Observers say that the Deoli meeting on Monday, Sept.8 brought together leaders of the warring Meena and Gujjar communities besides that of the Jats, a community that had deserted the Congress in the last Assembly elections.





Nuclear deal may be major election plank



Indications from the extended Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting in New Delhi on Saturday, Sept. 13, and the three day BJP National Executive meeting in Bangalore from Sept. 12 to 14 are that one way or the other, the Indo-US civil nuclear deal will be a major election issue. The Congress will be touting the deal as among its major achievements during the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) rule. The party is also expected to play up the pro-poor programmes taken up by the UPA Government, especially the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.



The BJP on the other hand appears all set to debunk the nuclear deal as a sell out to the United States. While doing so, the party is expected to distance itself from the Left stance opposing the deal on the ground that it amounts to entering into a strategic partnership with the United States. The BJP has no problem with the country getting closer to the United States, but is opposing the deal on the ground that the strategic interests of the country have not been protected adequately.



Both the BJP and the Left, though, oppose the deal. The Left is doing so on the ground that irrespective of the intrinsic merits of the nuclear deal, which in any case, they do not believe in, any strategic partnership with the United States has to be opposed as it erodes the country’s long established independent foreign policy. The BJP is opposing the deal on the ground that it virtually ends the scope of the country going in for fresh nuclear weapon tests, even if the need arises.





Little headway at Congress-Samajwadi Party talks



There are conflicting signals from the Congress-Samajwadi Party meeting held on Monday, Sept. 8 to work out an agreement on seat-sharing in Uttar Pradesh. Reports say that the Samajwadi Party adopted a tough stance, refusing to concede more than a dozen odd seats to the Congress out of the total 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state. What is more, when Congress leader Digvijay Singh suggested that Ajit Singh’s Rashtriya Lok Dal be included in the proposed secular alliance, Samajwadi Party leaders said the Congress should share its own quota with the RLD.



With the talks not making much headway, the two parties decided that instead of an agreement on seat-to-seat basis they should try to reach a common ground in the initial phase. They will exchange lists of their favoured constituencies.









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OBC-Dalit ‘grand alliance’ to take on Mayawati’s BSP



Observers say that the hard bargaining between the Congress and the Samajwadi Party is the result of the uncertainties of coalition politics. Railways Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal, Ramvilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party and Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party had slowly captured the space vacated by the Congress over the past decades in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. But these three OBC and dalit leaders now face a common challenge - that of Mayawati.



Over the past few weeks and months, when the tenure of the Congress-led UPA at the Centre is drawing to a close, the three OBC and dalit leaders are trying to forge a ‘grand alliance’ that can stop the Mayawati juggernaut.



Indications of the new emerging combine surfaced when Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party and Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party launched a joint campaign demanding increased compensation for land acquired at Badalpur in Greater Noida. The three leaders had also addressed a joint news conference in New Delhi.



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The Congress and the Samajwadi Party are expected to hold another meeting today, Sept. 15 to iron out the differences on seat-sharing in Uttar Pradesh. Uttar Pradesh Congress president Rita Bahuguna Joshi told mediapersons in Lucknow on Sept.9 : “It would be an honourable deal. An understanding has been reached on 70 to 72 seats while some work remains to be done on the remaining eight to 10 seats.”



If no agreement is reached at the Sept. 15 meeting, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav may meet by the month-end to iron out the differences. Besides finalising the seat-sharing formula for Uttar Pradesh, the meeting may also take up the question of entering into an alliance in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh for the Lok Sabha polls. The Samajwadi Party has been of the view that in the light of the emerging caste coalitions and equations, it may be difficult for the Congress to take on the BJP without getting the support of other secular parties.





JMM wants two ministerial berths



After becoming Chief Minister of Jharkhand, JMM chief Shibu Soren wants the Congress and the UPA to accommodate two of his party MPs in the Union Council of Ministers. Soren reportedly met the UPA chairperson in New Delhi late on Wednesday, Sept.10.







Speaking to newspersons, the JMM chief said that his party is confident about securing two berths in the Union Ministry saying that he has already been assured of this by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee. He said the party has already decided on the names of the two MPs who would be inducted in the Ministry. The two aspirants, Teklal Mahto and Hemlal Murmu, have been camping in New Delhi awaiting a call from the Prime Minister to join his Government.





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No Trust Motion not permissible in October session



Both Houses of Parliament are to meet from Oct. 17, resuming what has been officially termed as “the second part of the 14th session.” According to the tentative calender, the session would end on Nov. 21.



The Government has clubbed the Monsoon and Winter sessions after dubbing the preceding two-day special session convened for the vote of confidence on July 21-22 the first part of the 14th session.



As the October 17 part of the session would be considered a continuation of the special session, the rules of procedure will not permit a vote of confidence or no confidence.



Rule 338 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Lok Sabha states: “A motion shall not raise a question substantially identical with one on which the House has given a decision in the same session.” In this instance, the House approved on July 22 the motion of confidence moved by the Prime Minister on July 21. Therefore, the House cannot once again take up the issue of no-confidence in the government. Of course, the final authority who decides whether a motion is in order or not is the Speaker.



Officials in the Lok Sabha secretariat have pointed out that a government motion seeking confidence and a motion seeking a vote of no-confidence in the government are seen as essentially similar or even identical, with the only difference in who is moving the motion.



The subject of the motion in both the cases remains confidence in the Government or lack of it.