Has Congress become a dud for allies after DMK's no to future tie-ups?

Owing to its decimation at the Assembly polls in four big states recently, the Congress is soon running out of friends, even close ones. The growing clout of Gujarat Chief Minister and BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi has tempted Congress’ fair weather friends to do a rethink on their alliance. In these circumstances, M Karunanidhi surprises little when he announced not to renew ties with the party as the alliance has “created a bad name” for DMK. The presence of Telegu Desham chief N Chandrababu Naidu at Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s swearing in ceremony as Madhya Pradesh chief minister clearly indicates that there is a pro-Modi wave blowing hard as the 2014 Lok Sabha polls close in. The BJP prime ministerial candidate is no longer a “political untouchable” and is considered a new force to be reckoned with in national politics. A growing surge in favour of the BJP as manifested by four assembly poll results have made the untouchability tag for Modi and the party wither away, at least to a good extent for now.[caption id=“attachment_1289795” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] DMK chief M Karunanidhi. Reuters[/caption] Karunanidhi’s tongue lashing of the Congress party while announcing to stay away from it has proved the optimists wrong. The DMK chief seeking support from Congress president Sonia Gandhi for sending his daughter Kanimozhi to Rajya Sabha and her meeting with Rahul Gandhi in July, ostensibly for thanks giving had fuelled speculations that the two parties were once again getting cozy for parliamentary elections. The DMK’s move is thus a severe setback to the Congress. It also makes personal electoral fortune of Finance Minister P Chidambaram, to be most challenging one. In the last parliamentary elections DMK had won 18 seats and Congress had won 8 seats out of a total of 39 seats in Tamil Nadu. The Congress’ tested formula of 2004 and 2009, stitching small alliances and hoping that the national election was an aggregate of state elections now seem to lay in tatters. It has been deserted by Trinamool, DMK, TRS, IUML, JVM and so on. Even JD(U), which till recently appeared inclined to enter into an alliance with the Congress, has in the aftermath of four assembly poll results has become very critical of it. It is only RJD chief Lalu Prasad who was released on bail today spoke of his desire to be a Congress ally in Bihar. But Lalu is guided by several other factors also. The party will have to devise a new strategy to take on the rising might of Modi. In Jharkhand fresh posturing by Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) that it would go alone in 14 seats of the state, is causing another kind of headache for the Congress top brass. The Congress backed the JMM leader Hemant Soren to fulfil his chief ministerial ambitions on the ground that the two parties would fight Lok Sabha elections as partners. The JMM now sees Congress more of a liability than of a party which could add value to its electoral prospects. The UPA now has only three allies, nine-member NCP led by Sharad Pawar, five-member RLD led by Ajit Singh and three-member National Conference by Farooq Abdullah. RLD chief Union Civil Aviation minister Ajit Singh, who faces existential crisis in the aftermath of Muzaffarnagar riots, is seriously considering of other options outside of Congress that may be available to him, pre- and post elections. The RLD leader is holding a rally on 23 December in Meerut to reassess his own strength. Singh has invited all non-Congress and non-BJP leaders for this rally and may test the waters for a prospective Third Front. Singh wants to send across the message that is still in the reckoning in Western Uttar Pradesh. RLD fought the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls in 2012 together with the Congress and the results were far from satisfactory. Of late, NCP chief and Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar’s open criticism of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi and Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, albeit without directly naming them is worth recalling. “Congress has suffered a jolt in the polls. Everybody, including Congress and us, will have to ponder over this seriously…The new generation had a big role in this electoral defeat and their anger has been reflected through the ballot….The ruler must be strong and one who ensures effective measures and also have the capacity to implement decisions taken. People don’t like weak rulers…In this context the example of Indira Gandhi can be given. She used to implement decisions with vigour. That is why, during her tenure, this jhola class (people with NGO background) which offers free advise, were not there. The jholawalla gang is putting forth new unrealistic ideas which are having an impact on media and some people in the government,” Pawar said. Looks like, the jholawala gang (read Sonia headed-NAC) has forced Congress to drink an unblending mix of utopianism and politics and might cause electoral misfortunes for the party in 2014.