NEW DELHI, Feb 4: As the election carnival in the world's largest democracy gathers momentum, alignments and realignments of political players in the arena have thrown up mind-blowing array of political combinations.In this high-stake game while the bottomline for all political parties remains `winnibility', the `netas' try to explain away their `political promiscuity'.
While veteran socialist George Fernandes admits of differences with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on important issues like Article 370, uniform civil code and the Ram janmabhumi, he prefers to term his Samata Party's tie-up with BJP as `tactical seat sharing'.
In some of the major states - Bihar (54 seats), Karnataka (28), Tamil Nadu (39), West Bengal (42), Orissa (21) and to some extent even in Andhra Pradesh (42), the most unlikely realignment of forces has taken place.
BJP - the `untouchable' of Indian politics, till recently, has suddenly found allies in the most unlikely quarters - in West Bengal, Orissa and Karnataka andeven in Arunachal Pradesh.
The stage is set for a three-cornered race in Karnataka between the Congress, Janata Dal and BJP after the Ramakrishna Hegde-led Lok Shakti finally decided to throw its lot with BJP.
While the failure of Congress-Lok Shakti talks for a poll tie-up sent Hegde into the arms of BJP, Bangarappa's Karnataka Vikas Party - another new entity in the state, after being rebuffed by BJP - forged an alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
In Orissa too, which has hitherto witnessed straight contest between the Congress and the Janata Dal, there will now be a three-cornered contest after the vertical split in the Dal and the break away Biju Janata Dal (BJD) tying the electoral knot with the BJP.
Although the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) led Jan Morcha comprising the BSP is also in the fray, it is not considered a major contender.
While late Biju Patnaik had always opposed the BJP, son Navin who now heads the BJD, justifies the tie up with BJP on the basis of his father's longassociation with Atal Behari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani going back to the 1970's.
In West Bengal, after the BJP found an ally in Mamata Banerjee - led Trinamool Congress, differences cropped up between the two on the issue of seat sharing, thus bringing into focus the purpose behind all these alliances.
As observers term the political promiscuity as `an arrangement of convenience', there are others who say that the alliances are result of `political expediency' rather than convenience.
``It is basically a question of asserting one's ideology. But for an ideology to be implemented, the party has to come to power and that is the reason why, a party looks for electoral alliances, according to the political expediency of the time,'' says veteran Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee.
But if the ideology is solely limited to capturing power, then hopping on to the bed of any political player becomes the in thing, say observers.
Former Union minister P K Thungon of the Congress joined the BJP in ArunachalPradesh. Former Lok Sabha member from the state Tomo Riba also followed suit and is contesting on a BJP ticket.
Gujarat presents another case of unique electoral realignments. The Rashtriya Janata Party (RJP) was formed by Shankar Singh Vaghela with the help of 44 MLAs after breaking away from the BJP last year. The Congress later supported Vaghela in forming the government in the state and now as a seat sharing arrangement between the two has fallen through they will be taking on each other in every constituency.
The political soap opera in the state took another turn last week as the RJP itself underwent a split as nearly 20 RJP and Congress MLAs including former revenue minister Atmaram Patel and former speaker Himmatlal Mulani joined the JD. The JD has announced its intention to contest all the 182 assembly seats as the state goes for assembly polls too along with the Lok Sabha elections.
Bihar is also set for a three-cornered contest in most of the 54 Lok Sabha constituencies. While the BJP-SamataParty combine has already finalised its electoral pact in the state, two other major fronts, the United Front and the Congress- Jan Morcha alliance, are yet to finalise the details of electoral adjustments in the state.
RJD president Laloo Yadav, main inspiration behind the formation of Jan Morcha, is reluctant to spare more than 12 Lok Sabha seats from the state for the Congress.
The UF is also experiencing similar pangs in forging a complete understanding among its constituents. The JD wants to contest at least 37 seats while the CPI(M) wants 17 and CPI wants 9. The Samajwadi Party (SP) of defence minister Mulayam Singh Yadav wants at least 19 seats .
In Rajasthan, the RJD and BSP are making their debut appearance this time. While the RJD is contesting all the 28 Lok Sabha seats from the state, the BSP has announced only 16 candidates so far. But the BJP here too is witnessing a ground swell with four congressmen and three JD leaders having already switched over to the party.
Thus as voters find ithard to keep track and make up its mind vis-a-vis each alliance observers say, observers say there may be further realignment of forces after the poll results come out.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
