After much downs and few ups, six
factions of the erstwhile 'Janata Dal' or evergreen 'Janata Parivar' came
together to save India's secular fabric - at least that is what they had claim.
And in process, they thought,
they could make a front to revive their dwindling political futures.
But they could not or did not
deliberate on ‘state Vs national’ aspect of their ‘coming together’.
Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh
and Janata Dal (United) in Bihar are fighting to win the upcoming elections in
their respective states.
An assembly election loss, after
a humiliating show in the Lok Sabha polls last year, would be a heavy burden
for Samajwadi Party to bear. The party may not recover from it. Losing assembly
polls in Bihar, after complete decimation in the Lok Sabha polls, will make
Nitish Kumar and Janata Dal (United), irrelevant in national and state
politics.
Rashtriya Janata Dal, after Lalu
Yadav's conviction in fodder scam, is fighting a battle that he has already
lost. An association with his corruption taint may be detrimental electorally.
Samajwadi Janata Party exists only in three words, literally. Janata Dal
(Secular) is losing its appeal in Karnataka.
The family head of the family
show, Indian National Lok Dal, has been jailed for 10 years in a corruption
case and his party failed to make any mark in the Lok Sabha as well as in the
assembly polls.
And these six parties came
together to form a combined entity together.
But it was an alliance of
political opportunism with no political pragmatism.
Primary issues, potent enough to
derail the process, like name, symbol and main party office of the new
political entity were not worked out. And they remain elusive.
On ground, four of these parties
have no or very less political currency left. RJD may work some political
miracle given the prominence of 'caste factor' in the Bihar polls, but even
that is not possible for others of the lot.
SP and JD(U) are restricted to UP
and Bihar only – in their respective states. And they are fighting battles of
political survival in retaining these states.
So, there is no conflict of
interest - at least politically. SP can help JD(U) and RJD in Bihar and these
two parties can do the same for SP in UP. But that needs prior understanding,
that wasn't tried to work out before the 'grand Janata Parivar merger' was
announced.
After he left Congress, Vishwanath
Pratap Singh had formed Janata Dal in 1988 to extend his political interests
and as there was no ideology behind the move but a political purpose to somehow
form the government, the party started witnessing splits fuelled by political
ambitions.
It was Chandra Shekhar's
prime-ministerial ambition behind emergence of Samajwadi Janata Party or
Mulayam Singh Yadav's regional ambitions behind SP. Then Nitish Kumar and George
Fernandes walked out with Samta Party. Lalu Yadav did his part by forming RJD
in 1997. Om Prakash Chautala started his political family with Indian National
Lok Dal. Nitish Kumar had one more split when he split Samta Party and formed
Janata Dal (United) in 2003. Then there are more.
Since its formation, if Janata
Dal has anything constant to talk about, it is its split after split at regular
intervals - over a dozen and counting - splits fuelled by political ambitions.
Though Mulayam Singh Yadav has
not walked out of the 'reunited but still unnamed Janata Parivar', he has
clearly left the two parties of the new entity in Bihar. As told, he is feeling
insulted and humiliated over the treatment meted out to his party in Bihar – by
the political brethren of his ‘reunited Janata Parivar’.
But the real reason lies in securing
the regional power centers first. The leverage that the combined entity can
give in national politics comes later. If there is no regional political
currency left, thinking of being a force at the national level will be nothing
more than daydreaming.
UP being SP’s only power
corridor, it needs to save it first, pooling and exhausting all resources to
fight the wave of huge anti-incumbency to win the 2017 assembly polls. And it
would avoid embarrassing and electorally sensitive elements like aligning with
Lalu Yadav and Congress, the party that is its opponent in the state.
So, it was a ‘decision as per the
political norms’ when he decided to walk out of the alliance in Bihar. In fact,
by doing so, he can reap the benefit in a better way. SP has always been
non-existent in Bihar. So, it doesn’t take the state seriously. Now, if the
election returns, somehow, with better results this time, with the party again fighting
on all seats, it would be a talking point for the UP assembly polls. After all,
Mulayam can think of cornering some of Yadav and Muslim votes there – with increasing
political isolation of Lalu Yadav (and Nitish would not like to see a
politically stronger Mulayam Singh Yadav in Bihar).
Now, it is to be seen whether Sharad
Yadav and Lalu Yadav become successful in brining Mulayam back into the
alliance – as they are claiming.
But the development has clearly
indicated one thing – and again - that Janata Dal was a loose amalgamation of
different political groups which had come together to get into the power
corridors and it had no ideology of
its own - and every ‘satrap’ kept his political
interests before the interest of combined entity. That led to its premature or
early death.
In 1988, it was in the name of
opposing Congress. In 2015, it is in the name of stopping BJP. In 1988, it had
a combined identity, a name and symbol. In 2015, the ‘merged’ parties are still
fighting elections as separate parties. In 1988, there was no political
ideology to back the formation of Janata Dal. In 2015, the story remains the
same.
