Netaji Mulayam Singh opens a front against Congress

Sending a clear signal that he is not going to be tainted by association, Mulayam Singh Yadav on Wednesday distanced himself from a “scam-tainted” Congress. At the two-day national executive of the Samajwadi Party being held in Kolkata, the party tried to give fair indication that it was prepared for a greater responsibility at the centre and its identity was no longer that of a regional party restricted to UP. It was clear that the party was trying to garner support from non-Congress, non-BJP parties to be able to float its own version of a third front.

That the SP was on the verge of a remarkable achievement came through Mulayam Singh’s remark that the “SP should get enough seats in the Lok Sabha election so that no government can be formed without it”. This is what the SP is hoping for – minimum 45 seats which would make it indispensable to government formation. No alliance would be able to plan a government without the SP. And in that case the SP would become the pivot around which other smaller parties would converge making it a working coalition.

Of course, given the fluidity of the political situation, it does not mean Mulayam Singh has ceased to be friendly towards the Congress or will not bail out the UPA during crisis. But it does not want to get a bad name by being so close to the Congress. He said: “The situation has come to such a pass that the Congress is getting mired in controversies and scams. Every day a new scam unfolds. The reputation of the Congress has been tainted because of these scams.”

Such a stand also does not mean that Mulayam is inching closer to the BJP. He did not spare the BJP when he said, “While the Congress is battling scams, the BJP, which is trying to take advantage of the situation and trying to sneak back to power, will take the country backwards because of its policies and ideology.”

The SP explained that given the current political environment, the party had no other option but to provide a “lifeline” to the UPA government despite corruption charges and scams to prevent communal forces from coming to power and to save the nation from the massive expenditure of an early general election. The party hinted that it was not the right time to bring down the UPA government because the BJP was organised at this point of time while the regional parties were disunited.

What did not come as much of a surprise was the questioning of Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi’s political acumen by SP general secretary Mohan Singh. He posed a serious and embarrassing question on Rahul’s ability to lead the nation. Rahul is expected to be the PM  candidate for the Congress in the next general elections.

“We haven’t heard his views about sensitive national issues. How do we know what he would do as a leader?” Singh quipped. Given the fact that both the Congress and the SP fight for the same secular turf in UP, it is only expected that one of the SP leaders would target Rahul, who led the Congress campaign against the Samajawadis during the election campaign earlier this year. 

With the convention being held in Kolkata, it was expected of Mulayam to point out which of the two major rival political parties – the Trinamool or the CPI(M) – he would choose as a third front partner. He remained non-committal, saying that the Trinamool was an important party but then historically the SP had got along better with the Left.