An unabashedly Mulayam shift on UPA-II’s third anniversary celebration

The UPA-II’s third anniversary was every bit about wooing UP strongman Mulayam Singh Yadav. It did not matter that M Karunanidhi had not made it to the celebrations. It did not matter that Mamata Banerjee had again stayed away. What stood out was that the powerful low-profile political secretary of the Congress Ahmed Patel quietly received Mulayam Singh Yadav when he walked in a little after 7.30pm.

Technically, the Samajwadi Party is not part of the UPA. Mulayam and his followers have been frequently bailing out the Congress in tight political situations. In fact, the original invitation list, when it had been drawn up in the Prime Minister’s Office, did not have Mulayam Singh’s name. The Congress leadership insisted on his inclusion and that is why Patel waited on the 7 Race Course Road lawns of the Prime Minister’s residence to do UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s bidding and receive Mulayam Singh Yadav personally.And not just that Mulayam Singh was seated on the dais along with all the UPA stalwarts — Pawar, DMK’s TR Baalu and Trinamool’s Saugata Roy sat to the left of Sonia Gandhi and beyond that were the two Yadavs, Mulayam and Laloo Prasad. For a moment it appeared as though the Congress was again heading for a 2008-like scenario when Mulayam and his then lieutenant Amar Singh had bailed the UPA out after the nuclear deal forced the Left to sever its ties with the Congress. 

That was not all. Sonia Gandhi ensured that Mulayam Singh Yadav was seated right next to her at the dinner table. Sonia’s was in fact a very political table. Seated around her were Mulayam, Laloo and son Rahul Gandhi among others. By contrast, the Prime Minister’s was a governmental table. He was surrounded by Pranab Mukherjee, AK Antony, and Sharad Pawar among others.

It was more than apparent that Mulayam Singh had more than made up for Mamata’s absence. In fact, the Trinamool camp was thinly represented with only a handful of MPs other than minister, Saugata Roy. Of course, Mukul Roy had to be away at the railway accident site in Andhra Pradesh. It looked as though the Congress had figured out that it would be difficult to travel the road with a headstrong Mamata. And that is why Mulayam with his 22 Lok Sabha MPs might step in to strengthen the coalition.

It was interesting also that when Mulayam made his entry, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, a presidential hopeful, walked quite a few paces in his direction to raise his folded hands and offer his “namaskar” to the UP strongman.

There were speeches both by the prime minister and Sonia Gandhi. In her speech, Gandhi made a reference to the elections only two years away and asked the ministers to perform in a way that it was easier for the electorate to vote the UPA back to power yet again. She said: “Promises alone wouldn’t serve the people but they would vote it to power only on the basis of the performance of the coalition government.”

Aware that the prevailing mood was quite an anti-government one, Sonia Gandhi said that in spite of facing “storms” both inside and outside Parliament, the government had been firm in its priorities and had worked with determination. “The schemes that we started during UPA-I were strengthened during UPA-II,” Gandhi said.

Though recently released from prison on bail, scam-tainted A Raja was expected to make it to the occasion, but he was not there. However, former Congress spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi was present. But then another former Union telecom minister from DMK Dayanidhi Maran, who is also facing investigations in the 2G scam, was well in time to mark his presence.

But Mulayam Singh Yadav, knowing full well that he was the star of the occasion, was not going to make his plans explicit. He gave a new twist to the presidential election discussions. “I am moving to Lucknow tomorrow, and anyone who wants to discuss the issue would have to come there,” he said.