Non-UPA floor coordination likely

New Delhi Jan. 27: The Budget Session of Parliament beginning next month may see floor coordination between the non-UPA members. While the supporting parties like the Samajwadi Party and the RJD are going back to the basics, the BSP and the Left cannot afford to go ahead with their old line in the changing political situation. This will also be a first session of BJP’s Sushma Swaraj as the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha. Her performance and the skill to consolidate non-UPA parties will also be under watch. Earlier, the Opposition parties and the SP, RJD found it difficult to work together with Mr L.K. Advani on the floor because of his hardline image. But Ms Swaraj could be acceptable to the non-NDA parties wanting to sharpen their attack on the government before the Assembly elections in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. The appointment of former MP, Mohan Singh as SP’s general secretary and spokesman in place of Mr Amar Singh is seen as a significant development. SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav has sent out a clear message to his political consitutency through this appointment. This means that his priority is not to keep the “corporate world” and the Bollywood in good humour and strengthen the party through TV debates. AICC sources viewed that the SP without Mr Amar Singh would be more foucssed, aggressive at the ground level. The party did not expand outside Uttar Pradesh when Mr Amar Singh was its general secretary, they pointed out. RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, who had once described himself as the freelancer of the Congress, has realised that latter is not keen to really with it before the Bihar polls. The Congress party wants to regin lost ground among the upper castes, dalits and minorities under the leadership AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi in the coming Bihar Assembly polls. Therefore, the RJD cannot afford to play a second fiddle to the UPA during the Budget Session. Ms Swaraj had good equations with the two Yadavs. It will be interesting to see how the BSP will play a role on the floor in two Houses of Parliament during the session. Congress insiders’ attempt to hold the agriculture minister Sharad Pawar responsible for the price rise have come as warning to the UPA constituents — DMK, Trinamul Congress and the NCP — that their ministers are under watch.

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