The UPA and NDA may continue to stick together in Delhi but in Uttar Pradesh, the Assembly elections are ripping them apart.
Instead of contesting as a cohesive force in UP, the two formations are not only cracking up but their leaders are targeting each other in a manner that leaves little room for goodwill and congeniality in the future.
The constituents of the UPA at the Centre are locked in a bitter battle with each other in UP. The Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party are not only mounting caustic attacks on each other but also against the Congress that leads the UPA.
UPA chief minister Mayawati’s anti-Congress plank is the mainstay of her speeches. She has been using every opportunity to ridicule Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
She recently used unprintable words against the Opposition which includes the Samajwadi Party and the Congress in UP.
The Samajwadi Party, in its desperation to retain its leading position among Muslims, has also not hesitated to lash out at the Congress. Senior SP leader Azam Khan compared the Congress to “a eunuch that cannot deliver children” and said that similarly, the Congress was incapable for forming government in UP.
The Congress, not to be left out, has also returned the favour to SP and BSP. Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, at his press conference in Varanasi, termed the two parties “goonda” and “chor”.
The Trinamul Congress, which has virtually no political presence in UP, has also jumped on to the bandwagon and its leaders are targeting the Congress for its “faulty policies” at press conferences. The Trinamul leaders repeatedly clarify that their alliance with the Congress does not exist outside the central government.
The LJP and the RJD are also putting up a “token fight” against the Congress and other UPA allies in the state.
If the UPA is lying in pieces in UP, the state of affairs in NDA is no better. The Janata Dal (U) which leads the coalition with the BJP in neighbouring Bihar, is fighting against the BJP in UP.
Upset over the failure to enter into seat-sharing with the BJP, the JD(U) has not hesitated to pick up candidates discarded by the BJP and in its campaign the JD (U) leaders make it a point to clarify that they have no truck with BJP in UP. “This is nothing short of a mockery of democracy. It is like having your cake and eating it too,” says political scientist R.K. Tiwari.