YEAR-POLITICS 2

No political party had got such numbers after 1991
with election after election witnessing a fractured verdict.

The year ringing out will be remembered for the
failure of the BJP, the main opposition party, as also the
Left parties to get their act together and virtually living in
a different world which came crashing after the electoral
verdict of May 16.
Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) General
Secretary Prakash Karat led the charge of the Third Front
which consisted the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Rashtriya Lok
Dal (RLD), Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S), All India Anna Dravida
Munnettra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and the Left parties, which came a
cropper.
In fact the elections generally did not turn out to be
good for many regional parties barring the likes of Navin
Patnaik's Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal
(United).
The BJP got nothing right despite projecting L K
Advani, its 'iron man' as the 'strong' leader in comparison
with a 'weak' Manmohan Singh as much water had flown from the
Ganga since the issue of the demolition of the Babri Masjid in
the town of Ayodhya took it to the centrestage.
BJP was in the battle gear too early but the tactics
and strategy of the Congress appeared to have stumped it with
the ruling party projecting the "trinity" of Sonia Gandhi,
Manmohan Singh and Rahul Gandhi to telling effect.
It was a year when Rahul Gandhi came into his own as a
leader as he successfully led the battle in the key Indian
state of Uttar Pradesh giving sleepless nights to the Bahujan
Samaj Party and the Samajwadi Party.
The Lok Sabha bypoll in the north Indian town of
Firozabad, in which Mulayam Singh Yadav's daughter-in-law
Dimple was defeated, was indicative of the changing winds.
MORE PTI SPG
RDM


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