How far will a federal front go?

It is a sign of the times that in this election there is a likelihood of not one but two sets of regional groupings emerging. This is a new phenomenon, although the picture in this respect is not wholly clear yet, for in some cases only feelers have been sent out so far, as in the case of the AIADMK and Trinamool Congress.

It is evident that it is the wider politics in the country that is the trigger for the two new combinations. Traditionally, the Left parties have been at the centre of things in the making of the Third Front which has posited, not always convincingly, that there is space in India for a secular coalition ranged against both the Congress and the BJP.

It is a different matter that some who have veered towards such an idea have shed their inhibitions without remorse and leaped towards the BJP-led alliance if it suited their interest.
This time round, however, the idea of a Federal Front has also been propounded. This is projected as a coming together of regional parties that are against the Congress, the BJP, and the Left.

This is a bit odd since the Left appeal has declined considerably since the fall of the Left Front government in West Bengal and the emergence of Mamata Banerjee as a counter-weight to the Left. In all these years, the BJP has been the most articulate centre of ideological expression not only against the Congress but also the Left.

But Ms Banerjee has in recent times sought to come to the fore as a “secular” brand of opposition to the Congress and the Left. It is on this count that she differs from parties like the JD(U), SP and the Rashtriya Janata Dal. It needs to be seen whether in the post-poll scenario Ms Mamata Banerjee will provide succour to the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance or not.

Sheer opportunism has long been the name of the game in Indian politics. Even so, in recent times, the United Progressive Alliance and the National Democratic Alliance could appear on the scene with many of the regional parties taking the plunge alongside either the Congress or the BJP, the two opposing poles, before the election.

In this context the National Democratic Alliance has crystallised to some degree with the Shiv Sena and Akali Dal staying put with the BJP, but there is nothing called the United Progressive Alliance on the eve of the election for the 16th Lok Sabha. The Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal have struck up an alliance in Bihar, but this single-state association can hardly be a substitute for the erstwhile United Progressive Alliance alliance, which was more or less an all-India grouping.

The Nationalist Congress Party of Sharad Pawar stays with the Congress, of course, but the party’s fickle temperaments have been a subject of comment.