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Sonia brings Kalyan, Mulayam closer

Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow

Politics makes for strange bedfellows. Thus, Bharatiya Janata Party strongman and Chief Minister Kalyan Singh and his bete noire Mulayam Singh Yadav, the Samajwadi Party chief, seem to have got together to target a common political foe -- the Congress, especially its president Sonia Gandhi.

While political observers suspect a tacit understanding between the two sworn enemies, they are almost certain to have a common electoral slogan against the Congress -- more particularly its chief.

At least Kalyan Singh makes no bones about his party's plan to go hammer and tongs at Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin. He has also gone on record praising Mulayam Singh for "saving the nation from foreign rule".

Little realising that this could act as a double-edged sword, Mulayam Singh has thus far failed to react to this 'appreciation' from a traditional adversary.

Kalyan Singh, for his part, is confident Gandhi herself will lose even if she contests from Amethi. "The people of this country might be illiterate, but they are not immature to not understand what is good or bad," he says.

The chief minister does not think a similar campaign by the BJP and the Samajwadi Party will work against his party's interests. "As far as we are concerned, the Samajwadi Party will remain our main opponent in Uttar Pradesh, where the Congress is virtually non-existent; but at the national level the electoral battle will be between the BJP and the Congress."

He argues that when two parties raise a common slogan against a third, the voter tilts in favour of the stronger contender -- which in this case will be the BJP.

The UP chief minister is unimpressed by the Congress party's visible revival in Uttar Pradesh. "Its recent failure to provide an alternative government at the Centre is going to be a major election issue in our favour; people will ask the Congress why it had to force another election on them," he says.

Kalyan Singh believes the fall of the Vajpayee government was an eye-opener for voters. "That clearly demonstrated the importance of every single vote; they will realise that a single vote is going to cost them a whopping Rs 1100 crore [Rs 11 billion]," he says.

He also sees much hope in the 'wave of sympathy' that the toppling of the BJP government had evoked. "People will decide whether they want a stable government for five years of a mid-term poll every year," he said.

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