Events
& Issues
New Delhi, 9 December
2021
Union of Regional
Parties
STRATEGY FOR
ELECTIONS?
By DrS.Saraswathi
(Former Director,
ICSSR, New Delhi)
“Regional parties will build up national
parties. They alone can defeat the BJP”, said West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata
Banerjee in Mumbai after meeting NCP chief Sharad Pawar.She is busy doing
spadework for uniting them. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin has suddenly
realised only recently that India is a union of States and therefore the terms
“Centre” or “Central government” should not be used and should be replaced with
“Union government”. This is being
scrupulously followed in official circles in Tamil Nadu.
A senior Congress leader emphatically
responded to Mamata’s stand by asserting that no non-BJP Government is ever
possible without the Congress. But, TMC
is firm on keeping away from the Congress and has not taken part in any
Congress-led meetings or activities inside or outside Parliament.
These are preparatory to 2024 General
Election to Lok Sabha eagerly awaited by small buthopefuls to come together and
defeat the NDA. “Unity is strength,
divided we fall”, is the motto of his election strategy. But, unity is rare
among political parties though the goal may be common to all players.
This time, a planned scheme is being worked
out from West Bengal to bring popular regional parties together to oust both
national parties -- the BJP and the
Congress.It is Mamata’s grand design to pool the strengthof regional parties to
govern the entire nation, which in her view would mean that power will flow
from the States to the Centre. Her
recent victory in the Assemblyelection has encouraged her to think of national
leadership.
She admits that a
strong alternative to the present government cannot be built by any party
alone. “Whoever is stronger,wherever,
should do it”, she said. But Pawar, known for measured steps, does not hint at
dropping the Congress or anyone, and is in favour oftaking everyone along.
Mamata is aware that
to play national politics, her party has to grow beyond West Bengal and contest
elections in other States. It is trying to expand into the north-east, Goa,
Bihar, and Haryana and in this process has acquired several local leaders from
the Congress.
Union of regional
parties and union of States are different. The former refers to alliances for
elections and coalitions in government formations. Partners arepolitical
parties. The latter relates togovernance of the nation and the nature of
federalism whoever forms the union government.
The actors are States and State governments. Logically, it is in this,
power will flow from the States to the Union and not in the union of regional
parties which is an election strategy.
Thus, in the mid-term of Modi sarkar,
thoughts are floated and
plans are made to dislodge the present government at the Centre in the
next election in 2024. It is reported that the expertise of election
strategists are hired to advise on practicalities of working out the scheme.
It is a period of
hectic pre-election activities which have started this time immediately after
the last election by ambitious parties taken aback by a second consecutive
victory of the BJP. Stalling
parliamentary proceedings is not only to prevent productive parliamentary work
and thereby reduce the stature of the BJP from an extraordinarily
action-oriented party to a non-performing party.It is adopted asa step towards building
opposition unity.
Possibility of convening
any of the two types of “unions”, that is, of regional parties or of States, depends
on the ability of leadership.
A crucial development
emerging in the present moves is Mamata’s proclaimed stand against both NDA and
UPA. “What is UPA, there is no UPA”, she said in her own stylerejecting totally
the idea of Congress-led alliance to take on BJP. Though NCP is also like the
TMC, a breakaway group of the Congress, Pawar’s party is in the Maha Vikas
Aghadi alliance in Maharashtra along with the Congress and was in the UPA
government at the Centre before 2014.
Stalin votes for UPA
government at the Centre and wants to retain the Congress as a junior partner
to fight election in Tamil Nadu.He is a staunch supporter of protest politics
of the Congress whereas the TMC refuses
to follow the line of the Congress in or outside Parliament. The DMK is not
revealing its plans in the event of alliance of non-Congress opposition to the
BJP. Mamata needs to work a lot to separate Congress from these twoand other
allies if she is serious about union of regional parties.
As part of this party
politics, Mamata who is not an MP, has been unanimously chosen as the
chairperson of TMC’s parliamentary party. This position will give her
tremendous opportunities to interact with other Opposition parties on issues
and initiate and coordinate joint opposition action in Parliament. This role is
easier for her than to the Congress which remains the Opposition party to many
regional parties in power in the States.
Noteworthy is the
possibility, nay assurance, for continuance of identity, ideology, and social
base of respective regional parties after their union.
It seems that the
Congress is more worried about this development than the BJP. It has a reason. For, if a strong non-Congress opposition to
the BJP emerges, the Congress which is already
pushed down as the main opponent to the BJP, will lose even this place.Mid-term
politics today is for leadership of a combined opposition to the NDA. The
Congress has to fight the BJP and also some of the strongest BJP’s enemies – a
very tough job.
To Pawar, Mamata’s
intention seems to be “to set up a collective leadership platform by bringing
like-minded people to provide strong alternative to the BJP. This platform
should be established before 2024 elections”.
These moves in theOpposition
camps show that the days of merger and acquisitions of parties are over. The
history of party alliances has proved that mergers are artificialwhile splits
are natural. They are also transient triggered by an eye on immediate benefits
and dissipate as soon as the original purpose is served orfailed. Constituents
of Janata party, despite having tall leaders, failed to remain united. The
Janata Parivar in Bihar dashed on the rock of seat sharing though both JD(U)
and RJD were very keen on it. Even within States, even very small
parties prefer to remain independent and join alliances and decline to merge
with others and lose their identity.
The possibility of
bringing together cooperative regional parties to seize power at the Centre is the
principal agenda of the TMC. We have yet to see how many support this idea.Will
it appeal to persons like Kejriwal and Akhilesh Yadavand Uddhav Thackeray? Will
it succeed in breaking the UPA? Will it
attract, for instance parties like the DMK and National Conference? Even if a
union of regional parties is voted to power, can it smoothly agree on
leadership and cabinet formation?
A sound federation of
regional parties must precede formation of a government of regional parties at
the Centre. One has to look at
inter-party and inter-State politics.---INFA
(Copyright,
India News & Feature Alliance)
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