Cong squirms as SP smiles

NEW DELHI: Thanks to the sudden but expected pro-Mulayam turn of events in Lucknow this week, the Congress appears to have been left high and dry. Barring Sonia Gandhi’s party, all the alliance partners have now joined the new UP government.
The Congress’s dilemma is understandable. If it joins the Mulayam Singh Yadav government, chances are that it might find itself totally submerged in Mulayam’s ‘secular’ political space.If it doesn’t, Sonia Gandhi’s dream of leading an overall anti-BJP alliance at the national level might just remain a dream. Finding itself in a catch-22, the Congress looks confused, directionless in the home state of the Nehru-Gandhis.
What has added to the Congress’ discomfiture is that numbers — and not emotions or ideologies — seem to count in politics in Lucknow right now. The Congress is weak just because it is weak in numbers. And Mulayam is strong because he is stronger in numbers so much so that he appears to be heading for a bulldozing majority.
In fact, the Samajwadi Party’s numbers have gone up from 142 to 184 overnight, thanks to the huge BSP split and the consequent SP-JBSP merger. Besides, there are at least 20 Independents who are too keen to lend support to the Mulayam government on the floor of the assembly on Monday. With the Independents as good as being in his kitty, Mulayam doesn’t really need any other party’s support to pass the majority test. He already commands the support of 204 MLAs in a House of 402 on his own.
But Mulayam is too seasoned a politician to ignore the importance of Kalyan Singh and Ajit Singh who together account for an additional 22 MLAs. He knows that both the Singhs are much more important than the numerical strength they represent. They are crucial from the electoral point of view. Little wonder then that Mulayam has given their parties four of the six cabinet berths so far.
Kalyan is now known as Mulayam’s chanakya while Ajit, son of late Charan Singh, is a comrade-in-arm. They have together revived the MAJGAR union of Muslims, Ahirs, Jats, Gujjars and Rajputs at the mass level. All those who know UP politics know it for certain that MAJGAR is an unbeatable political combination.
Indeed, Mulayam’s stars are on the ascendant. He mu-st have been relieved when the Congress, through a Sonia Gandhi decision, refused to join his ministry. It is a different thing if he continued to extend, for courtesy’s sake, an olive branch to the Congress even after the ministry-making exercise was over.