Congress leaders often cite coalition compulsions as one of the reasons for Rahul Gandhi’s reluctance to accept the prime ministerial position.
Congress leaders often cite coalition compulsions as one of the reasons for Rahul Gandhi’s reluctance to accept the prime ministerial position. They say he will accept the position only when the Congress gets a majority on its own in the Lok Sabha.
But the experiences in Uttar Pradesh are teaching Rahul Gandhi the realities of present day Indian politics. Coalitions are simply here to stay and you have to stitch alliances not to just acquire power but to come anywhere near a striking distance of capturing power.
As the Congress comes close to stitching an alliance with Ajit Singh’s Rashtriya Lok Dal under Rahul supervision, they also see this development as a tacit acknowledgement of a change in his ‘no prime minister’s post without crossing the halfway mark’ condition.
In the UP assembly that has a strength of 403, with 22 MLAs, the Congress presently ranks fourth, behind the ruling BSP, the SP, and BJP. But it has gained heart from its performance in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections when, surprising all politicians and pundits, it won 21 out of the 80 seats contesting without an alliance.
It was after this performance that Rahul and the Congress took ‘mission Uttar Pradesh’ upon themselves seriously with the objective of ending the drought of electoral victories that has been haunting the party since 1989.
“But the caste realities are different. You cannot strike winning combinations in various constituencies without ensuring the support of different communities, and the Jats can make a big difference in a large number of constituencies,” said a senior Congress leader explaining the logic behind jettisoning the policy of going alone.
As negotiators cutting across party lines are aware, cutting a deal with a demanding Ajit Singh is like skating on thin ice. “Yes, we are close, but we can say it’s done only after it’s done,” said a member of the negotiating team.
Once the deal is announced, it could set the timetable for a cabinet reshuffle at the Centre. So, right now it has the potential of creating ripples beyond the numbers in the contest for the UP state assembly polls.
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