Lonesome leader

Former Prime Minister V.P. Singh’s unsolicited advice to the voters to go in for tactical voting to defeat the BJP is an admission of the political leadership’s failure to give the voters a clear choice. He would have done better if he had used his persuasive skills to bring together the so-called secular parties in their fight against the BJP. Instead, he has shifted the onus of defeating the Hindutva party to the voters, who will first have to determine which of the parties in a particular constituency is in a position to defeat the BJP and vote accordingly. This is a difficult task, for instance, in a state like Uttar Pradesh where the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Congress claim to be the BJP’s main rival. Such tactical voting can succeed only if the voters are given a clear impression that the contest is essentially between communal and secular forces. The campaign so far has not been predominantly aimed at such a polarisation. Besides, the credentials of some parties, including thatof Singh’s own Janata Dal, to wear the secular garb are suspect. In fact, many attribute the phenomenal growth the BJP achieved in the 1989 election to the crutch the former Prime Minister provided to the party. Despite its profuse apologies, the Congress is still perceived as a party willing to play the communal card to consolidate its vote banks.

Whatever the past record of the parties concerned, they could still have made the voters’ task easier if only Singh had succeeded in averting a situation where the non-BJP votes would split to the advantage of the BJP. How could he, when he no longer enjoys the confidence of the Janata Dal or the UF as their spokesmen were overeager to point out when he gratuitously said Sonia Gandhi’s name should not be dragged into the Bofors controversy? What is discernible in all this is his overweening desire to build the right atmosphere for a Congress-United Front understanding on the formation of the next government. Singh assumes that the elections will produce a hungParliament. What’s worse, he does not find anything unethical in such a government. Nor does he recognise the fact that such a government could have carried on till the life of the 11th Lok Sabha expired in the normal course. What he says is nothing original as the Samajwadi Party has already put it down in its election manifesto, saying it will not mind joining hands with the Congress to form a government.

However, Singh’s calculations can go awry if the BJP cadres also resort to tactical voting with a view to reducing the seats won by the Congress. Assuming that it will be a hung House, what matters is which party will get the maximum number of seats as only that party will be invited to form the government. There can be no mistaking that, unlike in 1996, the BJP will be in a better position to cobble together a workable majority this time. The BJP is still in a position to shift votes against the Congress in those constituencies where the latter has an edge over the rest of the contestants and the BJP isnot at the number-two position. All that it needs to do is to ask its cadres, as in Jalandhar, to vote with a view to defeating the Congress. The rest will follow, much to the chagrin of V.P. Singh and his secular friends.