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Kaun Banega Next Prez
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Pratibha won, nation lost </b>
Pioneer.com
Swapan Dasgupta
A few hours after the voting in the presidential election, a Congress MP rued that despite Pratibha Patil's inevitable victory, this was an event that wasn't going to produce any winners. Almost every party or formation has emerged from the exercise diminished. The Congress could not get its preferred candidate Shivraj Patil into Rashtrapati Bhavan because of the Left veto; the Left failed to secure the nomination for its chosen man Pranab Mukherjee because the owner of the Congress Party was uncertain about his loyalty; <b>the BJP was confronted with the irritation of one important section working against Bhairon Singh Shekhawat because it wanted to show LK Advani his place; the NDA suffered the ignominy of the Shiv Sena going over to the other side and the Trinamool Congress abstaining;</b> and the fledgling UNPA couldn't conceal the disarray in its ranks on polling day. 

The biggest loser, of course, may well be the nation. India has ended up being burdened by a President who, despite the victory of gender equality, may prove to be a colossal embarrassment - especially if a dodgy past is constantly excavated.

In a narrow political sense, however, the presidential election has been an unqualified success for the Congress and UPA. Contrary to initial whispers, the UPA constituents held together and were bolstered by an unflinching Left. Indeed, the election for the President and Vice-President prompts the conclusion that the Communists have, for all practical purposes, decided to cement a longer-term relationship with the Congress. Of course, there will be friendly clashes in West Bengal and Kerala, and occasional one-upmanship battles over policy and personalities. However, fuelled by its ability to acquire the commanding heights of influence, the Communists will do nothing to jeopardise their policy of creeping acquisition. The suggestion that the BSP may replace the Left as the pillar of outside support seems far-fetched. No one in the political class really trusts Mayawati to be an enduring friend.

The Congress' biggest success in the Presidential poll has been to set up some constituents of the UNPA as agent provocateurs. This is not to say that all the constituents of this formation are insincere about their anti-Congressism. The AIADMK leader J Jayalalithaa, for example, has been steadfast in her opposition to Sonia Gandhi. It was no accident that she encouraged her MLAs to subvert the UNPA's policy of abstention and vote for Shekhawat.

The same degree of sincerity was not that apparent in the Samajwadi Party. <b>There is enough credible evidence to suggest that the SP leadership has cynically used the UNPA as a protective ring to cut deals with the UPA Government in order to save its leadership from inquiries and harassment</b>. Organising the UNPA's denial of support to Shekhawat appears to be its first gesture of goodwill towards the Congress after the UP election. The unilateral announcement of Rasheed Masood as its Vice-Presidential candidate is its second thank-you gift to the ruling coalition. Masood will play an invaluable role in dividing the anti-UPA vote.

A similar policy appears to be followed by Farooq Abdullah who seems to have joined the UNPA only to argue against any support for Shekhawat. However, the National Conference's approach was dictated by political considerations - the need to woo the Congress away from the PDP. There is no suggestion that the Abdullahs were pursuing a personal agenda.

These and other contradictions in the UNPA will come to the surface in the coming days. <b>The TDP, for example, will have to think long and hard about whether it can bank on the Left's support in Andhra Pradesh and the INLD will have to decide whether it can afford to go it alone. </b>

In a normal situation, the NDA would have been the clear beneficiary. However, it can hardly hope to capitalise on openings if the BJP devotes most of its energies in warding off internal subversion from those who like to be the big fish in a modest aquarium.

The past few weeks have shown that the Opposition has a surfeit of compromised leaders.
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Kaun Banega Next Prez - by Guest - 09-30-2006, 07:46 PM
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