I.N.D.I.A and the local alliances
Recent history suggests it has never been easy to formulate political alliances. If the political leaders of prospective alliance partners manage to arrive at an understanding, it is always uphill to carry this spirit down to the booth level workers of the constituents. It holds true even for the current fledgling Congress-led I.N.D.I.A grouping formed to face the might of the Narendra Modi-led BJP at the coming Lok Sabha elections.
The jinx has been broken with Congress managing to enter state level electoral understanding in Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana and Goa with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and in politically significant Uttar Pradesh with Samajwadi Party. Most of the other alliance partners particularly of the ilk of Trinamool Congress chief Ms Mamta Banerjee still seem to be in no frame of mind to enter into a deal with Congress.
The Congress-AAP and Congress-Samajwadi Party understanding in different states suggest beyond any doubt that a broader alliance at the national level is now out of question. A more viable, since many of the regional satraps are not ready to shift from their stated positions, option in the form of state-to-state understanding seems to be the working model now.
Already inordinate delay has been caused even in arriving at local level understanding on the lines of Delhi and UP. In fact, considerable time was wasted by the I.N.D.I.A partners, before one of its key movers Bihar chief minister and JD (U) chief Mr Nitish Kumar ditched the combine to crossover to the BJP camp, in thrashing out the alliance issue. It would have been pertinent had they decided from the word go to explore possibilities of localised alliances rather than an all encompassing one at the national level which seemed improbable in view of the inflated egos and ambitions of some of the regional satraps.
With only two alliances in place, Congress -AAP, and Congress-Samajwadi Party, rest is still a work in progress with the D-day for announcement of elections drawing closers. How many of the I.N.D.I.A constituents make a common cause with the Congress is still a matter of conjecture.
The signing of seat sharing pact is just the beginning, as in the case of Congress-AAP, and Congress-Samajwadi Party, and is only an ice breaking leap forward. The problems begin thereafter. The real challenge would lie in making the pacts cohesive at different tiers among the alliance partners.
The challenge before the alliance partners would be two-fold. Firstly, to mentally prepare the respective leaders to share platform with each other and secondly, unite the workers to carry the election campaign forward to send an effective message to the electorate. Biggest hurdle in this route is the lack of time to carry the alliance down to the ground level as Congress and its allies are pitted against a well-oiled machinery of BJP.
Delhi being the capital and centre of the pond both Congress and AAP should close their ranks to ensure that the alliance worked cohesively and that a message spread to other states as well. However, it is easier said than done as both the parties will have to walk an extra mile to bury the past and move forward. The situation is truly complex, more in Delhi than in UP, with both Congress and AAP leaders having been at each other's throat for nearly a decade now.
The fact that the AAP’s growth was at the cost of Congress, had led to both becoming bitter political foes with Congress leaders often describing the AAP as ‘B’ team of the BJP and the AAP launching a similar counter-diatribe. The alliance partners will have to keep the past behind them and start on a clean slate if they were to meet the BJP’s challenge.
Delhi also being the political nerve centre, both Congress and AAP without losing any time should lay certain parameters to ensure not only cohesiveness but also to carry out an effective and united election campaign. Setting up a “common secretariat” or a joint election war room, would not be a bad idea with the alliance partners collectively running the show. This model should simultaneously be replicated in UP and other states and Union Territories where Congress manages to strike the alliances.
Such a mechanism is direly needed in order to send the right message in terms of cooperation among the alliance partners. This will also motivate the workers down to the booth levels to cooperate with each other.
There is a feeling at least in the Congress and AAP quarters in Delhi that both parties may stick to the respective Lok Sabha constituencies which they have been allotted as per understanding. Such a situation would be disastrous for either side. However, an AAP leader said that this did not mean that leaders from one would not be made available to the other for “cooperation” during campaigning.
The unity effort will have to start at the top with senior leaders not only agreeing to share platform with each other but also to jointly address large public events. Such events not necessarily be attended only by former Congress president Mr Rahul Gandhi and AAP supremo Mr Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi and in other states where the two parties have arrived at an understanding, but also by leaders of the other I.N.D.I.A constituents. This will help in creating an optics not only for the media eye but also to send a message across to the public.
To stop the Narendra Modi juggernaut the I.N.D.I.A combine partners should have a two-pronged policy. The one should be to have state and Union Territory level local alliances, as time for a broad-based national alliance is over. Secondly, for the sake of cohesiveness, they should arrive at an understanding by which they could launch united campaign and address combined public meetings say at a dozen key places in the country.
With neither the luxury of time nor that of resources at their command, the combine partners should strategize on how to make best use of the situation. They have to grapple simultaneously with the intra-party splits as may be engineered from outside, and the inter-alliance conflicts, a self-creation, to evolve a mechanism that helps them put up a formidable show in the elections.
