The UPA constituents have been maintaining a studied silence over talk of a proposed new front and mid-term Lok Sabha polls.
The Congress is pegging its hopes on the division within the regional parties which can give it much needed time to redraw a strategy for the Lok Sabha elections slated for 2014.
The Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamul Congress is giving conflicting signals to the Congress by being friendly with the NDA constituents like the Shiromani Akali Dal and the Congress’ main opponent in UP, the Samajwadi Party.
But others like the DMK, NCP, NC, Muslim League Kerala State Committee, All-India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen and the JVM(P) have been maintaining silence on these developments. The Congress is optimistic that the Left, BSP, AIADMK and the RJD (58 Lok Sabha members together) cannot ally with the Trinamul Congress, the SP, the DMK and the Janata Dal (United) directly or indirectly in a “third or fourth front” while the NCP (nine) and few others may not spend their energy to make somebody the PM. This means the Congress (207) can manage the numbers game (273) with the help of Independents (nine), 13 one-member parties for some time.
But this can affect the UPA’s flagship programmes and make it a lameduck government.
A new front can become relevant only by the outside support of either the Congress or the BJP, sources said. Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee’s decision to stay away from the swearing-in of Mr Parkash Singh Badal and Mr Akhilesh Yadav as Punjab and Uttar Pradesh chief minister shortly, after the AICC warned her not to cross the “lakshman rekha”, could delay the realignment of regional parties. Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said: “Social interactions with strangers by those in partnerships is permissible, but obviously if things go beyond the normal boundaries of social courtesy, it would become immoral.” Shortly after that, Trinamul Congress leader Derek O’Brien said: “She was keen to make the trip to Chandigarh and Lucknow but now she will be in Bengal on the opening day of the Assembly.”
for the governor’s address.”

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Mayawati lost dalit support
age correspondent
Lucknow, March 11

BSP president Mayawati may insist that her dalit vote base is intact but the fact remains that there has been sharp erosion in the BSP’s popularity among dalits.
A detailed look at the results of the UP Assembly elections shows that the BSP has suffered maximum losses in reserved seats.
In 2007, the BSP had won 65 out of the 89 reserved seats and this tally had given the much-needed push to the party that finally crossed the majority mark.
This time the BSP could win merely 15 seats out of the 85 reserved seats in UP after delimitation, a clear loss of almost 50 seats.
In contrast, the SP won 58 seats that immediately pushed its tally to much above the halfway mark. The BJP won three while the Congress won four reserved seats. The RLD won two and others won two. “Dalits had a choice between different parties on the reserved seats and they apparently opted for dalits contesting on SP symbol which means that dalit votes moved away from the BSP,” said former BSP leader R.K. Choudhury.