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A decisive mandate

Last Updated 16 May 2009, 18:45 IST
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The Indian voters have delivered a stunning mandate in favour of a decisive coalition government at the Centre headed by the Congress. It is a victory for the political stewardship of Sonia Gandhi and the Prime Ministership of Manmohan Singh. If the Congress, which ran the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government for the last five years, was pleasantly surprised by the mandate it got in 2004 to rule at the Centre, the Saturday’s clear-cut verdict is a reflection of the wisdom and maturity of the voters. The party’s poll strategists did exude confidence of winning more than the 145 seats the Congress got five years ago. But their best case scenario for the party was no more than 175 seats. The final tally has, however, far exceeded the expectations, while the UPA as a combine has secured a near-majority in the 15th Lok Sabha. This mandate has effectively put an end to all pre-counting talks of wheeling and dealing to muster the magic number of 273 seats in the 545-member Lower House of Parliament.

In the process, the voters have rejected the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance’s case, if it had one at all, very convincingly, for a return to power. The rejection of the BJP-led NDA and its prime ministerial candidate L K Advani is as decisive as the endorsement for the Congress-led UPA. The intelligent voter has also severely punished each one of the UPA constituent or partner who had deserted the UPA ship in the course of the last two years. On top of this list is the Left Front that had withdrawn support to the UPA government last year. The Left suffered its first defeat in its West Bengal bastion in over 32 years and, the worst ever in Parliament elections during the same period. The CPM’s disastrous performance in West Bengal and Kerala is a serious warning signal to the leadership headed by party general secretary Prakash Karat. 

The PMK and MDMK, who too had quit the UPA, were made to bite the dust in Tamil Nadu. Lalu Prasad’s RJD and Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party paid a heavy price in Bihar. Lalu and Paswan are no longer king-makers in Delhi. Indeed, Paswan even got a drubbing from the electorate. In Andhra Pradesh, fate of the TRS – another erstwhile UPA ally - is no different. On the contrary, the voters rewarded the DMK that remained with the UPA. It is time for all these parties and their leaders to honestly introspect.
The BJP, in particular, must seriously ponder over the reasons for its successive parliamentary election defeats.  What should worry the party is not just its drubbing in several stronghold states. Biju Janata Dal leader Naveen Patnaik has delivered it an equally severe blow to the party by demonstrating in Orissa that the BJP as an ally can be an avoidable political baggage. This bodes ill for the BJP as the NDA it leads may no longer be an attractive proposition for existing and potential future allies.
 Individually for the Congress, its performance in Uttar Pradesh, should be very satisfying. For almost two decades, the Congress leadership has been looking for that elusive sign of party’s organisational revival in the state in election after election. The party has reasons to smile as it has doubled its tally of Lok Sabha seats from the state, relegating in the process its rival BJP to the fourth place. In fact, the Congress is not far behind the two strong parties – the BSP and the Samajwadi Party – occupying the first and second places respectively. The Congress, contrary to many projections, has also retained power in Andhra Pradesh assembly in an emphatic manner.

The mandate gives the much needed sense of governmental stability the country needs in these testing times of economic slowdown. It should allow Manmohan Singh’s second ministry to deal with many pressing concerns without having to yield to the unreasonable demands of coalescing partners. The pioneer of the economic reforms programme that Singh is, he will have the challenging task of shielding the country’s economy from the global recessionary trends and put it back on the high growth track to protect jobs and incomes. In the last year of its term, the UPA government was weighed down by the stock market meltdown, high inflation rate, including high price of food grains, falling growth rate etc. The looming general elections had, to some extent, constricted his government’s ability to boldly tackle the economic challenges. Now, the emphatic nature of the renewed mandate should enable the Sonia-Singh duo to unveil a new deal for the nation.

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(Published 16 May 2009, 18:45 IST)

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