DNA Edit: Regional parties decline

The current crises plaguing the economy should have been exploited by opposition parties to hold the government accountable. But chieftains of regional outfits are so beleaguered with intra-party squabbles that they first want to ensure their own survival.

West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and former Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav are fighting their own political battles for survival in their respective states.

Mamata’s paranoia regarding BJP has reached such proportions that she has expelled a key person, often termed as her erstwhile Man Friday, Mukul Roy, on the grounds of betraying her trust.

In UP, the signs of weariness of the wily Samajwadi patriarch are evident as Mulayam seems to be losing his grip on his party. He clearly lacks the organisational strength to float a new party with his brother Shivpal who was the chief cause for the split in SP.

It doesn’t come as a surprise that son and former CM Akhilesh Yadav is happy with the current imbroglio despite receiving a drubbing in the Assembly elections. For Mamata, however, a crisis looms large since there are speculations that Roy might join the BJP.

If her worst fears come true, then Roy could also engineer defections that will weaken the Trinamool Congress’s vice-like grip over the grass roots. Roy has had an uneasy relationship with Mamata earlier as well, but the two had chosen to bury their differences. As for Mulayam, chances of revival in political fortunes appear bleak.