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In the Sherlock Holmes adventure, Silver Blaze, the mystery of the missing racehorse was compounded by the “curious incident of the dog in the nighttime”. The dog, of course, “did nothing in the nighttime”. A similar act of omission was the subtext of Lucknow’s sari distribution tragedy this past week. Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav’s muted reaction and refusal to attack rivals in the BJP — responsible, even if tangentially, for the stampede that caused 22 women to die — would have been explained away as dignified behaviour in normal times. In election season, however, good manners are not usually priority. In deciding to skip the option, Mulayam has only invited questions as to the exact nature of the Samajwadi Party’s relationship with the BJP. A secret courtship — indeed, there was talk of it when Mulayam’s government was formed, in 2003, courtesy a cross-party Thakur MLAs’ alliance facilitated by BJP functionaries — may just have gone public.
At one level, a BJP-SP understanding makes eminent sense in Uttar Pradesh’s fractured polity. Mulayam’s principal aim in this election is to ensure the Congress remains an also-ran, that even the entry of Rahul Gandhi doesn’t make the party an attractive proposition for the Muslim vote. As for the BSP, its Dalit constituency is a traditional rival of the SP’s Yadav-Rajput combine. That aside, the chemistry between Mulayam and Mayawati is just terrible. As such, a covert arrangement between the SP and the BJP to squeeze out the two common enemies is perfectly likely. Politics has seen stranger things.
Even so, Mulayam’s ambitions certainly don’t end at the level of honorary bridesmaid. Should the BJP and the NDA fall short of expectations in this election, their first instinct would be to isolate the Congress-Left. In this situation Mulayam, given his old equations with the plethora of socialists in the NDA and new friendships with the BJP itself, may be the optimal pole for that never-failing slogan, anti-Congressism. It’s a speculative if quintessentially Indian rigmarole. This week it’s unintended beneficiary has been Lalji Tandon.
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