By and large till 1989 there had been one-party dominance at the Centre barring two years of Janata Party rule. There was a popular saying that TINA (There Is No Alternative) factor is working for the Congress. In the parliamentary system of Government, one-party dominance for four decades is not a healthy development. But for this the ruling party, the Congress was not responsible.

In an infant democracy natural growth of two-party or multi-party system takes quite a number of decades to evolve. In the beginning, socialists tried to come up as an all India alternative to the Congress but the Socialist Party was split-prone. Even during the time of leaders like Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Socialist Party split and united many times. People said that they can't remain united for one year, they united only to split again. The CPI tried to create an all India base to come up as an alternative to the Congress. Their MPs got elected from several States.

There was a time when Kanpur, Ghazipur, Varanasi, Ahmedabad, Hoshangabad and other cities sent representatives to the Lok Sabha. But they withered away and then there was a split in 1963. After the collapse of the Soviet Union there was large-scale desertion of the cadres from the Communist Party. After that the Left comprising of CPM, CPI, RSP and others were limited to West Bengal, Tripura and Kerala with 61 Lok Sabha seats in their kitty. But there was one exception, the Jan Sangh and thereafter the BJP. It grew after Ram Janmabhoomi mandir movement and became a mass base cadre party. So much so that by 1996 Lok Sabha election its tally in the Lok Sabha was bigger than that of the Congress. In 1991 Lok Sabha election a foreign newspaper had commented about the BJP that the winner came second. This pregnant sentence indicated the possibilities. By the end of 20th Century, the Indian democracy transformed into bi-polar through the mechanism of coalition politics.

In dozens of countries coalition Governments run the country and run it successfully. From 1998 to 2004, for the first time a pure non-Congress Government headed by AB Vajpayee came to power. But in 2004 success in elections eluded them mainly because of inertia of urban and semi-urban supporters, who thought that come what may the BJP is going to win. But they fell through though by a small margin.

After four years of unstable and flop governance of the UPA, General Election is now looming large. Now there is an effort to make the democracy tri-polar. The idea of UNPA (United National Progressive Alliance) was mooted by Mulayam Singh, the then Chief Minister of UP. For the first time the Third Front alternative was thrown open by late NT Rama Rao, former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, when he was riding high after his victory in AP Assembly election. Andhra people felt insulted for two reasons. One, NTR was unconstitutionally dismissed by the then Governor, Ram Lal. Two, Union Minister Anjaiah was humiliated by the Congress high command at Hyderabad airport.

The idea of the Third Front was born and died many times. This time Mulayam Singh, having 40 Lok Sabha members, ambitiously planned UNPA. A couple of rallies were organised.

On the dais Om Prakash Chautala (one MP) Assam Gan Parishad (two MPs), Babu Lal Marandi (one MP) alongwith Telugu Desam leader Chandra Babu Naidu, Tamil Nadu leader Jayalalithaa were present. But it had an ominous beginning. Leader with largest potential of MPs bid goodbye.

Left Front, particularly the CPM, is in two minds. Its February resolution mentions, "though the communal forces have been dislodged from the Centre in 2004 election it would be a mistake to underestimate their latent strength." The resolution mentions about the class character of the Congress. The party decided to expose the Congress for departure from the Common Minimum Programme. It decided for all-sided struggle against communalism. On one hand they have made up their minds to help the Congress to form the Government after the next General Election if the BJP has a chance to form the Government. On the other, they are hobnobbing with parties of the UNPA combine, which are all against the Congress.

Clearly, the CPM is caught in catch 22 situation, but given half a chance they would side with the Congress. Even otherwise, the UNPA alongwith Left Front at the most may cross the 100 mark. This, of course, is my subjective assessment for Mulayam Singh may not perform that well in Lok Sabha election and so may Chandra Babu Naidu. At best the Left's tally would be 45 to 50, if assessed liberally.

But where does the UNPA stand today? Many political changes take place in between. Already, CPM is angry as Mulayam is being projected as prime ministerial candidate of UNPA. Why not, if Mayawati and Lalu aspire to become Prime Minister, he can too.

Courtesy: www.dailypioneer.com, March 16, 2008