It is a 'parivar' where family members want
to maintain their own homes, their own signs and their own identities. And
while wanting to do so, the resourceful of them want to impose what they are,
on others, expecting that others would follow the suit.
Unlike a family, they are still together,
waiting for the signs to emerge that who can claim the stewardship, who can
push for the symbol and who can draw the identity mileage.
That is the story of 'Janata Parivar', a
group of six political outfits - Samajwadi Party (SP), Janata Dal-United (JDU),
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Om Prakash Chautala's Indian National Lok Dal
(INLD), H. D. Devegowda's Janata Del-Secular (JDS) and Samajwadi Janata Party
(SJP), the party of former prime minister Chandashekhar - that trace their
origin the once relevant Janata Dal (JD).
The three most important parties of this
'Parivar' are from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, the two Hindi heartland states with
huge populations and therefore powerful legislative equation at state level and
in Parliament.
UP has the SP government where elections
are due in early 2017 and Akhilesh Yadav's government will be facing huge anti-incumbency.
JDS is limited only to Karnataka, INLD to Haryana. SJP is just in records. It
doesn't exist politically. Bihar has the JDU government. Elections are due in
the state in few months and JDU is finding it difficult to fight to retain the
chief-minister's chair in spite of the development claims by its Chief Minister
Nitish Kumar. The RJD, that has ruled the state for many year, is fighting the
survival battle after court-conviction of Lalu Prasad Yadav. Except the JD(U),
all these parties are family businesses, run like that only.
And all these parties are facing threat of being
pushed out of power or being made irrelevant by the Bhartiya Janata Party
(BJP). The BJP's clear mandate in Lok Sabha elections, its sweeping performance
in UP and Bihar and its impressive victories in states like Haryana, Rajasthan
and Madhya Pradesh, among others, created a challenge before the political
spectrum to handle what was facing them.
Political parties including Congress are
answering it with their own devised methods. These parties opted to merge under
the banner of the JD to present a formidable front that was strong enough to
take on the BJP, even if they had taken separate routes to promote personal
egos and personal interests.
Lalu and Nitish have been long-time rivals
in Bihar and the RJD's 'jungleraj' used to be main campaigning plank of Nitish
Kumar and the BJP. That was until the BJP was in alliance with the JDU. Now,
Lalu and Nitish are together, and are the main targets of the BJP.
Well, we never expected Indian politics to
play out ethical games. Every outfit is engaged in taking pragmatic moves to
further political interests, including political survival.
Today's announcement by the 'Janata
Parivar' of 'contesting Bihar polls together' is an extension of those efforts.
We heard a long ago that these six outfits,
having their origin in the JD, would merge and form a new party. As expected,
nothing has moved on this front. There are issues like 'name and symbol' of the
new outfit. Obviously, the party with strongest electoral presence will leverage
the position better. Outcome of the Bihar polls will be a logical way to assess
that. If Nitish makes a comeback, the decision will shift to the UP polls (as
expected). If the JDU doesn't perform well in these polls, the SP may gain the
upper hand.
So, it's a wait and watch game - for them, for other political folks..and for us.
