In political, as in most forms of bargaining, the party with the higher stakes will blink first. With each day that was added to the delay in government formation in Maharashtra, the Congress began to realise it was losing much and gaining little by prolonging the discussions over sharing ministerial berths with its partner, the Nationalist Congress Party. Thus two weeks after the Assembly election results were announced, the senior partner concluded an agreement without being able to wrest any of the major portfolios from the NCP, which was clearly in no hurry to end the stalemate. The accord came after a lot of pressure from the main Opposition, the Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party, and some prodding from Governor S.C. Jamir. For his part, NCP legislature party leader Chhagan Bhujbal talked of lending “outside support” to the new government, a ploy often used by junior partners in a coalition. External support without participation in the government is, after all, uncertain support, and the statement was clearly intended as a threat. Pressured and nudged from different sides, the Congress had no real choice but to give in. Any further delay could have created constitutional awkwardness, quite apart from political embarrassment.
This is not the first time these allies have tested each other’s time and patience before reaching an agreement. In 1999, when they first came together, they took two weeks to decide the shape and size of government. In 2004, when the NCP won more seats than the Congress, 12 days were spent in hard bargaining. In 2009, although the Congress, with 82 seats, won 20 seats more than the NCP, it was not able to leverage this in the bargaining for ministries. The NCP negotiators had a clever argument. The Congress contested 174 of the 288 seats but won fewer than half that number. The NCP, bagging 62 from the 114 seats it contested, had a better strike rate (54.4 per cent) than the senior partner (47.1 per cent). The Congress was allowed to field candidates in a larger number of constituencies on the strength of its good showing in the Lok Sabha election. By contrast, the NCP, which did not fare all that well in the 15th general election, recovered some of the lost ground in the Assembly election. Now that the political negotiations are over, the Congress and the NCP must get to work seriously on the tasks of governance. The 2009 mandate is not an unqualified endorsement of what they did over the last ten years and the coalition regime must set its mind on doing much better. As a first priority, it must deal with the agrarian crisis in all its aspects — drought, power cuts, and farm suicides.
Keywords: elections, Maharashtra, government, NCP
The unseemly wrangles over ministerial portfolios had held up the ministry formation in Maharashtra for nearly a fortnight and this is an insult to the people of Maharashtra who had reposed faith for the third time on the coalition arrangements of the Congress party and the NCP even though their record in office was dismal.When will the politicians learn to respect the will of the electorate?
In my opinion India would become a better country in all aspects if the political parties instead of fighting and wasting time, concentrate on problems faced by the public like poverty, illiteracy, drought, floods etc.,
Sir,
I note with surprise you consider drought, power cuts, and farm suicides as agrarian crises . They are in fact national crises because they affect both the rural and the urban economies. Even those with diamonds twinkling in their ears find it hard to beleive that toor dal costs 120 rupees a kilo. And that one thing has done what no amount of socialism could do. The rich are now empathising with the poor.
For over a fortnight both the Congress and the NCP could not come to terms in sharing power in Maharastra. The coalition politics is very convenient and has become indeed handy to score the political milages. A party with a just few seats in the House is a threat to the major national demanding vital portfolios has become the order of the day. This is quite not healthy for a democracy.
So the Representation of Peoples Act need to be overhauled. A committee should be appointed with eminet jurists and politicians to find a way out. Our demcoracy is said to be example for the best functioning of the largest democracy in the world. As such we require good laws to prove it since the present laws fit only to self aggrandised politicans.
Power and pelf topped by prestige is all it is about in the formation of any coalition government.Politics of pressure (a new dimension,not so new though,in the different types of politics)is now becoming the order of the day.Despite its superior strength,that the Congress had to capitulate speaks poorly of that Party and its principles,not that it had any to start with.If it had called the NCP's bluff without fear of sitting on the opposition benches,its stock would have gone high in the minds of the masses.But then the lure of the lucre and the power that goes with it makes all the difference.As you have rightly pointed out in your leader,the government would do well to address the agrarian crisis in all its aspects as its topmost priority followed by upgrading its police force by equipping them with all the latest weaponry and gadgets to provide better security to the common man.
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