The countdown to the general elections has begun and political parties are repositioning themselves with new alliances.
NEW DELHI: The countdown to the general elections has begun and political parties are repositioning themselves with new alliances.
The latest to do so are Lalu Prasad and Mulayam Singh Yadav. Sworn enemies for the past five years, the two Yadav heavyweights have agreed not to oppose each other in the next elections.
The rapproachment between the two feuding Yadavs comes from the fact that both leaders are out of power in their home states of UP and Bihar, where they have been upstaged by Mayawati and Nitish Kumar respectively. Both the SP and the RJD rely heavily on the Yadav and Muslim vote banks and have often damaged each others’ prospects by cutting into each others votes in UP and Bihar.
Both Lalu and Mulyam started their politics around the same time and became chief ministers in the wake of the VP Singh-led Janata Dal wave in 1989. Inevitably, this also led to fierce rivalry between the two for the leadership of the Muslim-Yadav vote bank. Their relationship has also seen many ups and down with both leaders often working to undermine each other.
The two had an acrimonious parting in 1999 after Mulayam Singh Yadav decided not to support the Congress party’s bid to form the government after the fall of the Vajpayee-led government. During the last assembly elections in both UP and Bihar, the two set up candidates often with the sole purpose of undercutting each other.
RJD leaders point to the fact that during the last assembly elections in Bihar, the SP put up 158 candidates, of which it won only two seats. But it ended up damaging the RJD in nearly 50 constituencies. The RJD returned the compliment by fielding candidates in Yadav and Muslim-dominated constituencies of UP. Now both sides have begun to see reason.
“Every time we fight, others take advantage. We have now decided not to damage each other,” says Mohan Singh, the SP’s deputy leader in the Lok Sabha .
The foundation for the rapproachment was laid during informal contacts between Lalu Prasad Yadav and the SP’s Ram Gopal Yadav and Amar Singh. It got a fillip following an extended meeting between the railway minister and Amar Singh. A fortnight later, Mulayam and Lalu met informally where the agreed to bury the hatchet.
j_ansari@dnaindia.net
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