NEW DELHI: Several regional parties have parted company with the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) over differences on seat sharing. The move has left the Congress in a lurch with poor show expected in Uttar Pradesh (UP), Bihar as well as Tamil Nadu. In Bihar, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), two key constituents of UPA have decided to align with Samajwadi Party (SP), UPA’s external ally.
In Tamil Nadu, Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) has parted company with UPA to align with All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK). PMK members of the central Cabinet, Union Health Minister Anubamani Ramadoss and State Minister of Railways R. Velu have announced they would submit their resignations to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The UPA allies in Bihar are agitated at the Congress’ plan to contest 37 out of 40 seats in the state. Seat-sharing talks between Congress and SP in UP have failed to progress with the former bent on contesting most of 80 seats. In Tamil Nadu, the Congress refusal to grant at least seven seats to PMK prompted the latter to leave UPA.
Tamil Nadu, which accounts for 39 of the Parliament’s 543 seats, was a swing state in the last general election in 2004 and helped the Congress-led coalition gain a majority in Parliament.
“This is the decision by my party and we will convey this to Congress as well,” Anbumani Ramadoss, the federal health minister and PMK leader, said. Ramadoss will now resign from Cabinet.
Yesterday’s move was the latest in a series of blows for Congress. While it is still the election front-runner, Congress has struggled to cement alliances in Bihar and UP, which together account for 120 seats in Parliament.
Many national polls show that the Congress-led alliance could beat the main opposition grouping led by the BJP, but it could still fall short of a majority in Parliament.
A “Third Front” of communist and regional parties is challenging the two main alliances.
The new move in Tamil Nadu could give impetus to the Third Front if the PMK and AIADMK join it in an alliance. “It will strengthen the Third Front's bargaining position,” said political analyst Amulya Ganguli.
PMK only has six seats in India’s lower house of Parliament.
Nationally, Congress may still have a good chance. “The only party which has left the UPA is the PMK, which is a small party, so it's not a disaster,” Ganguli said. “All in all, I don't think Congress is in deep trouble.”
The latest development has provided BJP sufficient political ammunition to talk of UPA's breakdown. “It forms a general pattern that the UPA is disintegrating. It is disintegrating before the 2009 elections, that is the bottom line,” BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said.
“What I can say is that every effort has been made to keep the UPA alliance intact. I have no doubt as far as the Congress stands, we have reached out to the maximum,” Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said.
The RJD, SP and LJP announced the formation of a "secular alliance" yesterday, which will "unitedly" contest 120 seats in UP and Bihar. "We three are together. We will fight jointly in north India. We will not clash with each other in the two states having 120 Lok Sabha seats," SP General Secretary Amar Singh said at a press conference.
