Mamata Banerjee’s gambit of reaching out to the JD(U), which is the second largest constituent of the NDA after the BJP, may not fructify into an alliance anytime soon but it has the stirrings of a possible realignment of political forces in the run-up to the next parliamentary elections.
By mandating Trinamul Congress leader Sultan Ahmed to speak to Sharad Yadav of the JD(U), Ms Banerjee has signalled her desire to keep open the possibility of a third alternative should the need arise, while, at the same time, putting the Congress on notice against any adventurism, if it, at any point in the future, particularly after the forthcoming UP elections, in which the Congress party hopes to fare better than in previous years, considers a life without the Trinamul Congress in the UPA coalition at the Centre.
Incidentally, Mr Ahmed’s meeting with NDA convenor Sharad Yadav came a few days after Mr L.K. Advani and Mr Narendra Modi of the BJP called on AIADMK leader J. Jayalalithaa in Chennai.
A possible coming together of Bihar chief minister and JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar, whose acceptability as a “secular” leader extends to the political parties outside the NDA fold, and the troika of Didi, Amma and Behenji — Mamata Banerjee, J. Jayalalithaa and Mayawati — could potentially alter the dynamics of politics in the months to come. Add to the mix Mr Naveen Patnaik’s BJD and Jaganmohan Reddy’s YSR Congress, and you have a potent combination of regional players that can act as a spoiler. Last year, the Centre’s decision to increase fuel prices pushed Ms Banerjee further away from the UPA, and into the company of Ms Mayawati and Ms Jayalalithaa. The three ladies and Mr Kumar were among a handful of CMs who absented themselves from a meeting of the National Integration Council as a mark of protest against the draft communal violence bill.