NEW DELHI: After BJP, it was Congress's turn to scream betrayal on Tuesday. The party was stunned when its partners - railway minister and RJD chief Lalu Prasad and steel minister and LJP chief Ramvilas Paswan - did a Naveen Patnaik to it, parcelling out 37 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar among them, humiliating the lead player of the ruling coalition with a measly three.
The ruthless hand dealt by Lalu, who fancied himself as the oldest and all-weather ally of Congress, marked a blow to Congress's plan to re-take power at the Centre and could potentially lead to the reconfiguration of UPA as well as Third Front's expansion, besides starkly bringing out the RJD boss's vulnerability on his home turf.
In contrast, Paswan was a clear winner, forcing Lalu to acquiesce to his tough terms for a seat-sharing pact. The LJP, which had contested eight seats in 2004 and lost four, has walked away with 12 seats.
In the last Lok Sabha election, the Lalu-Paswan-Congress alliance had swept 29 of the 40 seats from the state, derailing the calculations of NDA which was banking on Bihar for a bagful of seats.
Congress, which was happy playing third fiddle the last time, had upped its ante this time. Feeling more confident of its chances and because of the widespread perception about Lalu's diminished clout, the party was insisting on improving its share from the measly four it had to do with the last time. Naturally, the meagre three seats left for it came as a shocker.
Lalu's cold-blooded pronouncement that the shares of partners were worked out on the basis of each's strength as determined by the number of seats they won last time, when he used a different playbook for Paswan, could have hardly salved the hurt.
Paswan's teaming up with Lalu must have added insult to the injury inflicted on Congress by the RJD boss. Congress had to take up cudgels for the steel minister whenever he was at the receiving end of Lalu's strongarm politics.
Writhing in embarrassment, Congress launched an attack on Lalu, calling the deal unacceptable. It made its intent known by playing host to the railway minister's brother-in-law, Sadhu Yadav, when he revolted against being pushed out of the new RJD-LJP equation.
"Three seats in Bihar are not acceptable to us; the matter will be taken up with our allies," party spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan told reporters, rejecting the call for "sacrifice for secular unity". Senior party leader Sushil Kumar Shinde also talked about anger among the cadre in Bihar.
But the deal also served to validate the widespread and growing perception on Lalu being up against a resurgent challenge from Nitish Kumar-led NDA. He conceded more seats for the sake of Paswan votes, over whom the LJP leader has got a lock, and can transfer them at will. Considering that Paswans make up 5% of the electorate, the extra yard travelled by the RJD strongman may be seen as only pointing to the ground he had lost.
The steel minister had started off with 16 seats, but that was more of a bargaining ploy rather than the bottomline. His supporters were jubilant over the outcome.
The Bihar shocker was the first stumble for the UPA which seemed to be ahead of the rival combine, the NDA, in stitching up alliances. Coming after the failure to wrap up an alliance with Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh.
Source: TOI
The ruthless hand dealt by Lalu, who fancied himself as the oldest and all-weather ally of Congress, marked a blow to Congress's plan to re-take power at the Centre and could potentially lead to the reconfiguration of UPA as well as Third Front's expansion, besides starkly bringing out the RJD boss's vulnerability on his home turf.
In contrast, Paswan was a clear winner, forcing Lalu to acquiesce to his tough terms for a seat-sharing pact. The LJP, which had contested eight seats in 2004 and lost four, has walked away with 12 seats.
In the last Lok Sabha election, the Lalu-Paswan-Congress alliance had swept 29 of the 40 seats from the state, derailing the calculations of NDA which was banking on Bihar for a bagful of seats.
Congress, which was happy playing third fiddle the last time, had upped its ante this time. Feeling more confident of its chances and because of the widespread perception about Lalu's diminished clout, the party was insisting on improving its share from the measly four it had to do with the last time. Naturally, the meagre three seats left for it came as a shocker.
Lalu's cold-blooded pronouncement that the shares of partners were worked out on the basis of each's strength as determined by the number of seats they won last time, when he used a different playbook for Paswan, could have hardly salved the hurt.
Paswan's teaming up with Lalu must have added insult to the injury inflicted on Congress by the RJD boss. Congress had to take up cudgels for the steel minister whenever he was at the receiving end of Lalu's strongarm politics.
Writhing in embarrassment, Congress launched an attack on Lalu, calling the deal unacceptable. It made its intent known by playing host to the railway minister's brother-in-law, Sadhu Yadav, when he revolted against being pushed out of the new RJD-LJP equation.
"Three seats in Bihar are not acceptable to us; the matter will be taken up with our allies," party spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan told reporters, rejecting the call for "sacrifice for secular unity". Senior party leader Sushil Kumar Shinde also talked about anger among the cadre in Bihar.
But the deal also served to validate the widespread and growing perception on Lalu being up against a resurgent challenge from Nitish Kumar-led NDA. He conceded more seats for the sake of Paswan votes, over whom the LJP leader has got a lock, and can transfer them at will. Considering that Paswans make up 5% of the electorate, the extra yard travelled by the RJD strongman may be seen as only pointing to the ground he had lost.
The steel minister had started off with 16 seats, but that was more of a bargaining ploy rather than the bottomline. His supporters were jubilant over the outcome.
The Bihar shocker was the first stumble for the UPA which seemed to be ahead of the rival combine, the NDA, in stitching up alliances. Coming after the failure to wrap up an alliance with Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh.
Source: TOI
No comments:
Post a Comment