Will In-fighting in Opposition ranks doom their chances to bring Change

By : Amit Bhushan Date : 5th May 2013 The rank and file of the principal opposition party including sundry opposition parties is deeply divided over how the slicing and dicing of the electoral opportunity should be done. Individual leaders are unsecured about their statuses in the post-election scenario & thus draw a huge comfort with their present profile as designated by mandarins managing the current affairs of the government. The Change per se is of little concern to these leaders but their own position and voice must grow in hierarchy of influence in the new power structure likely to emerge is their primary concern. This is optimally reflected in the management of the opposition political structure and their go to poll strategy. Some of the smaller opposition parties took lead in announcing their loyal candidates for various constituencies. A considerably weakened ruling dispensation is also busy gathering their ground level rank and file to select winnable candidates in for different constituencies, however the principal opposition is busy to develop profile for their netas by indulging in bogus debates and futile public rallies which is being organized in order to motivate public opinion and to mobilize people. This suit the sham netas at the cost of the rank and file political workers, as the ground level workers are unable to work out their own winning strategy by making a strong pitch to the people in the constituency. They want all such people, which enjoy a cross-section of public support keeping looking askance towards them for party ticket. This allows such netas gather lots of people in their own rallies and depict their god-like image to people basis a clutch of smaller local netas. The local netas are used as fodder, who in the end will have very little time to develop a winnable public profile cutting across a large spectrum of people. It leaves the local netas dependent on senior netas to canvass votes for them as well as to manage internal and external opposition to some extent. This is the foundation of Indian politics and a hallmark of political management. A lot of behind the scene activities are managed by political maestros to develop winners for their respective parties and t defeat independents. Thus the netas in order to protect their turf are going to keep delaying the decision even if it means ruining the chance of party gaining public acceptance of governance. The principal opposition party is loathe to announce candidates or identify a short list of candidates for specific constituencies for states where its poll strategy should be very apparent. This is being done to suit the senior netas so that the junior remain managed and do not pose challenges to governance policies and structure in any post poll scenario i.e. should the opposition manage to form a governing combination. This is also likely to suit, senior netas engage in negotiation with coalition partners with impunity and support businessmen who fund electoral expenses and expensive lifestyle of the netas and their progeny. Even the smaller parties are unable to engage in a pro-people poll management as smaller parties have little chances to form government on their own and thus little chance to satisfy their poll workers with opportunities that accrue when a party is in power or has a huge influence on

government such as principal opposition. Also, barring strong state contenders such parties are merely engaged in propagating principles that are popular but have been disregarded altogether by the governance structure as this has been proved unsuitable. The state contenders themselves are busy to engage with national parties as this allows their own netas to depict their larger than life stature and thus to rise above the smaller netas. This also helps them buy time with their party workers for the sake of growth of the party and state by attracting centers largesse and offer bigger centrally funded opportunities to their supporters. The grass-root politician who has some support amongst a cross-section of people and is interested in widening his support base is left stranded as he is given little time and support by established political structures to nurture political ambitions in true spirits and to develop a support base on its own is of little merit and use since its involves disproportionate expenses and exposure of the person compared to real benefit to individual or people of the constituency.