Nda allies come out of the woodwork

Nda allies come out of the woodwork

The ruling NDA has scored a victory, bagging the post of the deputy chairman of the Rajya Sabha, although it does not have a majority in the Upper House. NDA candidate, Harivansh Narayan Singh of JD(U), comfortably defeated Congress nominee Hari Prasad 125-105. This, however, was not on the script.

The notion that the main challenge to the NDA in the general elections next year would come from a so-called federal front now lies pretty much in tatters. The Opposition rallied behind the Congress candidate. Nationalist Congress Party would have had the honour of fielding its candidate, but seeing failure, it left the job of losing the contest to Congress. The numbers were stacked in the NDA’s favour on account of two factors: Naveen Patnaik’s BJD voted for NDA, while AIADMK, YSR Congress of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana’s TRS chose to abstain. This fact may be used by Congress to drive home the point that these parties are covert allies of BJP, something that would only work against them in their home states. AAP also chose to stay away, and blamed Congress’ failure to reach out to it for its decision. This provides the singular silver lining for Congress that it doesn’t have covert ties with AAP in Delhi, but little else.

While there are no permanent friends and foes in politics, one would think that with general elections round the bend, Congress would have showed some of its old ‘reach-out’ powers. It hasn’t, making one wonder who the Congress has as the ‘go-to’ person if any semblance of an anti-Opposition alliance has to be built. While the GOP can relish at the thought of exposing fence-sitters after Thursday’s election, what it has to face up to, and perhaps correct, is have someone who can pick up the phone and get the numbers. Clean-cut battle lines mean little if the army behind you is unprepared.