New Delhi, June 30: The Manmohan Singh government looked unstable in the Budget session and speculation of an early election was rife, but it took two small, but not so inconsequential, decisions to give it a new lease of life.
To get out from its zone of discomfort, the Congress got help from a foe and an ally. While Nitish Kumar’s decision to quit the NDA gave the Congress an opportunity to lend support to the Bihar chief minister in the crucial trust vote, the trick was done with five MLAs voting for Karunanidhi’s daughter Kanimozhi in the Rajya Sabha election.
Though neither Nitish’s JD(U), nor the DMK have explicitly promised support to the Central government, Congress managers are convinced that 39 Lok Sabha members of these parties can be counted in any crunch situation in the monsoon session of Parliament that begins on July 26.
While Nitish has not been making any unpleasant noises about the Congress after quitting the Opposition NDA, Kanimozhi’s gesture of calling on Sonia Gandhi to personally thank her for the support has delighted the party managers.
Congress general-secretary in charge of Tamil Nadu Mukul Wasnik said that support in the Rajya Sabha election did not mean alliance but leaders here admit a new kind of axis with the formal ally.
“It’s a question of atmospherics, not alliance,” asserted a senior Congress leader while arguing that the tide had decisively turned in favour of the government after the rise of Narendra Modi in the BJP.
“Even the Samajwadi Party, which is itching to pull down this government will think twice before doing anything that could help the BJP. We publicly accept it or not, Modi’s ascent has already begun to help us.”
Though the BSP and the Left could have come to the government’s rescue in a parliamentary vote, the Centre has no worries on that account now. Even the proposal of calling a special session of Parliament to pass the Food Security Bill is not on the priority list of the Congress as it is confident of having its way in the normal monsoon session.
The government is unlikely to go for the ordinance route as most of the supporting parties prefer the parliamentary route for such a revolutionary step. Sources said the government would give a strong push for both the food and land bills in the monsoon session. It would go for an ordinance after the session if the BJP still managed to block the legislations.
The government is also planning a major reforms push in the coming weeks to rev up economy, a measure that would rob the BJP of its most potent weapon in the form of a lethal charge of policy paralysis.
Asked about the possibility of an early election, a key Congress strategist said the general election would be held as per schedule in 2014 and the party was now fully focused on the next round of Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Delhi.
The Congress also expects another shot in the arm with a significant ally joining the UPA in the coming days as the talks between the JMM in Jharkhand is in a decisive phase.
The discomfort of the BJP on the eve of the monsoon session is also palpable. Down in strength after Nitish’s exit, Bihar’s former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi took on its erstwhile ally in Patna today.
The BJP leader accused Nitish of criminal neglect for failing to rescue pilgrims from Bihar trapped in Uttarakhand floods. He also took a jibe at Nitish for taking the support of four Congress MLAs in the trust vote, something that showed BJP’s concern about the Centre adding wind to its sails.
