DNA Edit: Flexing their muscles - Regional parties are now plotting a comeback

No sooner were the Assembly Election results out that political jockeying began in right earnest. Make no mistake, the race to 2019 has begun. It is by no means restricted to the Congress, which seems to be recovering from the shock of a bountiful victory, after being years at the receiving end of saffron bashing, politically and electorally.

No political speculator could have imagined that Upendra Kushwaha from the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP), with its roots in Eastern UP and Bihar, could start hobnobbing with Chhagan Bhujbal of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in Pune, Maharashtra.

Pray, what is the connection? A possible attempt at Other Backward Caste (OBC) mobilisation? Perhaps. Asked if he could join an anti-NDA coalition that he had left earlier this week, Kushwaha said he would “explore all options”.

Well, he is not the only one exploring “all options”. That looks to be the name of the game, barely 48 hours since contours of an anti-BJP coalition started to make its presence felt. The nod for the meeting came from — who else — but Sharad Pawar.

The Maratha strongman is in the thick of things again, manoeuvring in an effort to get the best deal for himself. The Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao announced his intent on Thursday to tie up with All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president Asaduddin Owaisi, in an alliance for the 2019 Lok Sabha election, thereby consolidating his position.

It has prompted Owaisi to say that regional parties will play the role of kingmakers in the next Lok Sabha election, if not become the king themselves. There is little doubt that regional parties, who have been at the margins of national politics for some time now, are beginning to warm up to potential regional and national alliances.

Rahul Gandhi is openly seen in the unlikely company of once bête noire Chandrababu Naidu, while hobnobbing at the same time with the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), to set up a viable anti-BJP front. Moments after the Congress victory in the three Hindi heartland states on Tuesday, the two regional parties in UP, SP and BSP, have pledged their support to Rahul Gandhi. Last week, former BJP leader Yashwant Sinha, wondered aloud about the candidature of Mamata Banerjee as a potential Prime Minister. He, along with other usual suspects, was in Kolkata to meet the Bengal chief minister. That visit was preceded by a meeting between Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu and Mamata to apparently sew up an informal accord. Lets face it. Given that democracy is a numbers game, regional parties are in no position to form a government on their own, if it comes down to that.

They can at best play the role of important brokers who can push for a simple majority in the Lok Sabha. Let’s also admit that regional parties got it on the neck in the Modi wave as much as the Congress, so it is in their interest to fight back and regain their lost turf. And that is precisely what they are plotting.