Indian Elections 2009

Flush with the success of the Lok Sabha elections, the four pre-poll allies of the Congress have begin negotiating for their share of the pie.

• UPA allies battle for their share of the spoils, Hindustan Times, May 20 2009

The DMK has already asked for seven cabinet positions. I guess their logic is that if they ask for seven, they will get five.

• DMK demands 7 cabinet berths; meeting with Pranab inconclusive, Indian Express, May 20 2009

Farooq Abdullah of the National Conference has also expressed a desire for a cabinet post for the party (read him).

Mamta Banerjee has not yet expressed a desire to join the cabinet in Delhi, claiming to be concentrating on the coming Assembly elections in West Bengal in 2011. As expected, the party has called for pre-poning the elections.

• Mamata yet to take decision on joining UPA cabinet, Indian Express, May 20 2009

NCP has been quiet so far …

May 20th, 2009 | Tags: allies, DMK, National Conference, NCP, Trinamool Congress, UPA government, UPA/Congress | Category: DMK, Dr. Manmohan Singh, Elections, National Conference, Sharad Pawar, Trinamool Congress, UPA/Congress, coalitions/alliances | Comments (1)

Former Prime Minister and JD (S) chief Deve Gowda today announced the formation of Third Front, which will be amalgamation of eight parties including Communist Party of India (CPI), Communist Party of India Marxists (CPM), Forward Block, RPI, TDP, TRS, All India Anna Dravida Munetra Kazagam (AIADMK) and JD(S). The third front is planning to have its first political rally near Bangalore on March 12.

• Gowda announces Third Front for LS polls, Times of India, Mar 2 2009
• Eight political outfits join hands to form Third Front, Indian Express, Mar 2 2009

It is noteworthy that BSP has not been mentioned as part of this coallition. This inspite the fact that the Communist leaders have touted Behan Mayawati as the PM candidate for Third Front. It appears that BSP wants to keep all it’s options open till after the elections so that they could ally with who ever promises them important cabinet posts if not the Prime Ministerialship.

You might also recall that a few days back, AIADMK leader, Jayalalithaa, had tried to become part of the UPA coallition by urging Congress to form ties with her party instead of her arch-rival the DMK. This announcement today indicates that did not materialize.

It will be interesting to see if this pre-poll alliance will survive post elections.

March 2nd, 2009 | Tags: BSP, Communist Parties, Jayalalithaa, Lok Sabha elections, Mayawati, Third Front | Category: AIADMK, BSP, Communist Parties, DMK, Elections, Indian Politics, Mayawati, Third Front, UPA/Congress | Leave a comment

AIADMK chief and ex-Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu is actively wooing Congress to become a part of it’s UPA coalition. Jayalalithaa asked Congress to break it’s existing alliance with it’s arch rival DMK.

• Jaya woos Congress, Economic Times, Feb 19, 2009
• Amma stirs poll pot, asks Cong to dump DMK, join her, Indian Express, Feb 19 2009
• Jaya attempts to woo Cong ahead of LS polls, Hindustan Times, Feb 19 2009

To add to voter confusion, AIADMK has also been in talks with the left parties in the past to be part of the Third Front that the Communist parties want to form. See our previous post on that.

• We are going by understanding with AIADMK: CPI(M), The Hindu, Feb 20 2009

The Congress for now has rejected Jayalalithaa overture and claimed to have a strong alliance with Karunanidhi lead DMK, who is currently ruling Tamil Nadu.

• Cong-DMK have strong alliance: Moily, Times of India, Feb 19 2009
• Our ties with DMK “quite strong”: Cong to Jaya’s offer, Press Trust of India, Feb 19 2009

Though it is less than two months to go before the elections begin, the final composition of the two major coalitions the NDA and UPA is still not clear to the voters. Regional leaders are continuing to  negotiate with the two main political parties BJP and Congress. This uncertainity is troubling to the voters since they may vote for a party who allies with NDA before the elections, but may switch camps after the elections.

February 21st, 2009 | Tags: Jayalalithaa, Lok Sabha elections, UPA/Congress | Category: AIADMK, Communist Parties, DMK, Elections, Tamil Nadu, TamilNadu, Third Front, UPA/Congress | Leave a comment