YPOST

Potential Politics under Coalition of Parties

  In the budding stage all the petals of a flower club together since in that stage they cannot realize their own separate identity. As the flower blooms its petals make distances with each other because they have identified their uniqueness and their own unique positions. The blooming of Indian democracy also has the same story to tell where the country has been ruled by Indian National Congress for a long time after independence until the democracy was in its budding stage. In a nation of multitude this was possible because it was basically a continuation of awakening of the nation from its independence towards the formation of a democratic state.

     However, since 1984 no single party has won a majority in the national polls, a turning point that political scientists have dubbed the “post-Congress era” of Indian politics. The rise of regional parties – representing India’s diverse caste, class, and ethnic groups – has robbed the country’s biggest political formations, the Congress and BJP, of much of their support. Coalitions are now the inevitable product of this new political settlement: as regional parties accrue more and more support, larger parties, with dwindling vote banks, are forced to form alliances to secure office.

   This transformative process has however been fraught with unprecedented instability and weak governance. The tentative experiment in coalition government, especially at the centre, has evoked mixed responses although no one can deny the inevitability of the arrival of coalition politics in the working of our democracy. In this Lok Sabha election of 2014, a coalition government is inevitable.

   Now the two major political alliances are trying to grab the political power are United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and National Democratic Alliance (NDA). The former is led by Indian National Congress (INC) and the later is led by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Besides these two alliances there is another one known as ‘Third Front’ which is now an alliance of nearly 11 political parties, comprising seven regional and four left-leaning parties, declared itself an ‘alternative’ to the dominance of India’s two main parties: the incumbent Congress and the opposition BJP. After 10 years in office the Congress-led coalition is likely to suffer an emphatic defeat. The 11-party third front has therefore aligned itself against the BJP, the right-wing opposition party that it fears BJP since it represents a dangerous mix of aggressive capitalism and a rabid form of communal ideology.

  Now the question is in the upcoming formation of the government at the centre a coalition is inevitable. This multiplicity of the political parties is basically represents the multiplicity of Indian nation. It is quite very clear that the UPA government is now suffering from anti-incumbency factor due to price rise, corruptions and scams. The NDA also lacks to attain the magic figure of 272 out of 543 seats of Lok Sabha to form the government since its major political party BJP lacks support in the southern and eastern part of the country. However, the politics and arithmetic of coalition building promises to be the story of India’s election, the prospects of a third front, the large regional parties will still play a crucial king-making role. In the era of coalition politics even a small parliamentary presence of just 10 or 20 seats is enough to tip the balance of power. 38 parties are currently represented in India’s Lok Sabha, 11 of which have 10 to 20 seats, making them central to the shape and character of India’s soon-to-be-decided 16th government.

Manikankana Das

M.Sc media P.G 1