The Battle Begins!!

Three fronts are getting ready to battle against each other for the magic number of 272 as the world largest democratic nation goes for the General elections. There is nothing right in any of the three camps and that none of their so called manifesto and promises seems to be in the intention of good of the nation but are vote bank focused. The fight for seats in India is no way near to a competitive fight with any new economic policies but a fight based on caste, religion and petty issues to woo the voters.

The United Progressive Alliance received snub from both RJD and Samajwati party over the seat sharing agreement and both were going to election without any pre electoral agreement with congress though they have promised their post poll alliance commitment for a non BJP government. And congress can’t rely on Tamil nadu for repeat of its magical run in 2004 where UPA allies won all 39 seats as PMK, MDMK have defected to AIADMK camp. The announcement of Manmohan singh being the prime ministerial candidate and projection of Rahul Gandhi as the future leader may add a little advantage to their camp. The good news is the seat sharing agreement with NCP in Maharashtra, which ended the speculation that Sharad Pawar is intending to become the first Marathi PM.

With the controversial statements from Varun Gandhi the saffron front have proved themselves that their intention to form government is to spread Hindutva and to build Ram temple rather than to work for the development of our Secular India. Adding salt to the wound is the scuffle between the Party president Rajnath singh and general secretary Arun Jaitley over the appointment of Mittal for north eastern affairs of BJP and not to mention about the breakup of alliance with BJD in Orissa.

Unlike the last election, the Left front have managed to forge an alliance with some regional parties. But its members - AIADMK, JD(S), TDP, TRS and BJD have proved in the past that they could switch parties easily. And it is evident that the BSP supremo Mayawati is eyeing to become the PM with third front support. But for the Left front, there is no common ideology prevailing in the third front and the “non congress and non BJP” mantra is not going to work out for them. There would be possible realignment of many regional parties after poll and the national parties will be wooing the regional parties with promising ministerial posts. And we could see the parties in third front switching to either NDA or UPA front.

Though the odds are high for a hung assembly, let us hope that there is no repeat of 1996 poll scenario where the consecutive governments failed to produce the majority. Hope we get a government which solves the problems faced by common people, pursues an independent foreign policy, remains secular, drives our country to sustain our GDP growth rate, initiates a second green revolution and works for riding out corruption. Though it may appear as distanct dream, atleast few of the above said should be realized for the betterment of our country.