Time for unholy alliances - TeluguPeople.com News

HYDERABAD: Politics make strange bed fellows, it is said. And it aptly suits Indian politics. With just four months to go for general elections, political scenario in the country has been rapidly changing, keeping even the most experienced political pundits in a state of confusion.

The two major national parties, the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party, which have lost the capacity to form the government on their own at the Centre, are now making moves and counter-moves to attract new allies in place of those who have deserted them in the recent past.

Surprisingly, parties, which have hitherto supported the saffron party despite its strong Hindutva leanings, have turned secular overnight and are now looking for joining hands with the Congress party which, they attacked in the past, for promoting dynasty rule.

And so-called secular parties are not hesitating to join hands with the BJP, ignoring the fact that it was only the other day that they had treated it as an untouchable.

"With four months left for general election, political equations are undergoing a rapid change" Take for instance, YSR Congress party in the State.

Before going to jail in May 2012, party president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy made it clear that there was no question of joining hands with a communal party like BJP and that he was ready to join the UPA after 2014 elections after winning maximum number of MPs from the State.

His mother Y S Vijayalakshmi, too, asserted this stand several times. But soon after his release from jail in September this year, Jagan changed his stand, apparently realizing that the UPA has little chances of coming to power at the Centre in 2014 and there is a Modi wave sweeping across the State.

So, he shed his 'secular' mask and declared that nobody was untouchable for him and that he was ready to do business with Modi. Strangely, however, Modi has been sending overtures to Telugu Desam Party for quite some and TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu has quickly reciprocated the same.

Till the other day, Naidu had openly claimed that he would not get back into the NDA fold, which he had deserted in 2004. In fact, he attributed his party's defeat in 2004 elections to Modi's hardcore communal character which was evident in the infamous Gujarat riots of 2002.

But, now, Naidu realized that the only way to survive politically is join hands with Modi and cash in on his popularity. Even Telangana Rashtra Samithi, which spearheaded the movement for separate State, has kept its options open of joining the NDA in post-election scenario.

TRS president K Chandrasekhara Rao, who had once offered to merge his party with the Congress if Telangana is separated, is now in second thoughts as he realized that there is no point in sailing with a sinking ship.

Down south, ruling AIADMK, which had changed its affinity between the Congress and the BJP, is said to be inclining towards the Congress, while its main rival DMK is ready to dump the Congress for the sake of the NDA.

Apparently, DMK supremo Karunanidhi is angry with the Congress for harassing his family members in various scams such as 2G spectrum case. And the Congress is looking up to attracting the hitherto-NDA allies like Janata Dal (U) and Biju Janata Dal, which are not happy with the BJP for projecting Modi as the Prime Ministerial candidate.

At the same time, it is trying to maintain friendship with parties which are bitter rivals within their respective States: JD (U)- RJD in Bihar and SP-BSP in Uttar Pradesh.

In Delhi, the Congress has managed to wean the Aam Admi Party away from BJP by extending support to its convenor Kejriwal in forming the government.

And it hopes to get the AAP support to the UPA after the next Lok Sabha elections. And this is just the political scenario at present and one might not wonder if equations change unexpectedly after the elections, depending on which national party would get more seats. And Aya Rams and Gaya Rams would have a field day!