Is the idea of India’s politics confined only to Uttar Pradesh or to one or two political parties? It seems to be the case that every one is excited about the prospect of the old ‘Third Front’ idea where the non-Congress and non-BJP parties rally together to present an alternative at the Centre. No doubt the poor performance of both the main national parties - Congress and BJP - has brought the talks of a Third Front back on the national political agenda. Perhaps this is indicative of the motive that our political class are always looking to achieve power. There is no doubt that politically, UP is very crucial for any party looking to run a government at the Centre. However this column feels that the obsession with the 80 or so seats that UP send to the Lok Sabha is a little misplaced. In particular, those who are out of power, they all seem to be excited that something is going to take place (at the Centre) just because the Samajwadi Party (SP) has won an absolute majority in the just concluded UP State Assembly Elections. And now because the SP is going to run the politically most significant State, people like Mulayam Singh Yadav and new Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, they have become the new poster boys of the Third Front idea. To refresh public memory, in the run up to the last Lok Sabha General Election, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati was the central focus or interest of the political parties that would probably constitute the Third Front including the Left. So only a few years ago Mayawati was the powerful CM of UP and everyone expected her to play contribute to the formation of the Third Front. At the end all of us know what happened—the so called Third Front prospect remained what it is—just an idea.
Today again, a big win for the SP in UP is generating myths and fantasy of the political hopefuls. While it is true that regional parties are important to the idea of a diverse and pluralistic India, it seems to be the case that when it comes to the unity of the country and national politics, the voting public seem to be in favour of one of the two bigger parties—the BJP and Congress. At least in the last fifteen years or so the Congress and the BJP have been voted as the single largest party respectively. And as seen from the last General Election, the Indian electorate seems to know a thing or two about the Third Front idea—where disparate groups with their own set of narrow (regional) interest, ideology etc quickly mobilize their numbers as per the prevailing power-equation. Obviously the voters are sensible enough to know the pitfalls of such a rag-tag arrangement. In the last General Election, the Left parties tried to mobilize such a Third Front but it turned out to be a big flop show and was completely rejected by people. Just take the case of the Trinamool Congress and how this ally of the Congress led UPA government is behaving. It is spending more time taunting the Congress then actually doing its job of running the government, which is the mandate given by the electorate. The latest in a long list of arm-twisting its partner is the rejection in fares proposed in the Rail Budget. The Trinamool Chief Mamata Banerjee has ordered not just a roll back of the fares but also the dismissal of its party colleague Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi. Coming at a time when some people are expressing hope revival of a Third Front, the behavior of a small party like the Trinamool is really bad advertisement for a Third Front prospect. In fact this is the best example to show that regional parties may perhaps be good at running the State but when it comes to national interest, they will probably be found wanting.
