A few months after the Samajwadi Party (SP) decision to support the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, relations between the two parties have hit the lowest ever point.
Last week, in response to a letter from SP general secretary Amar Singh on the party’s pending demands, the Prime Minister’s
Office had written back to him explaining why not even one of those demands could be met by the government.
After the SP supported the government in the trust vote held on July 22, Singh has told friends, Congress President Sonia Gandhi has not taken a single call made by him.
So deep is the breach that last week, SP MPs in the Rajya Sabha abstained during voting on the Unorganised Sector Workers Bill, leaving the UPA government in a tight spot.
Every minister, including government managers entrusted with the specific task of handling the SP, say the SP is “too demanding”.
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The SP leaders find there is a deep “trust deficit” in relations between the two parties.
Recently, Singh called up Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil to lodge a law and order complaint. Patil told him to go to the local police station and file an FIR.
One of the key understandings between the two sides was that they would jointly fight the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. But even after months of negotiations over seat adjustment, the SP and the Congress have been unable to clinch the deal. According to SP sources, Janeshwar Mishra, one of the SP’s senior-most leaders, is opposed to any alliance with the Congress. Many other Samajwadi Party leaders don’t want to give more than 20 seats in Uttar Pradesh to the Congress in the next Lok Sabha elections. Amar Singh had publicly stated that his party would be able to afford only 12 seats for the Congress.
34 Lok Sabha seats is what the Congress wants out of the 80 seats in the state. The two sides have exchanged their wish-lists but the negotiations have not moved forward after that.
The Congress’ list includes 4-5 constituencies like Rampur where the SP has its incumbent MP. AICC general secretary in-charge of UP, Digvijay Singh’s logic is: “After the delimitation, constituency profiles have changed. We can’t decide on the basis of earlier results.”
While the negotiations for UP seats are still on, SP has already announced that in Madhya Pradesh it would fight the upcoming Assembly elections alone. Amar Singh announced this after four SP MLAs left the party and joined the Congress. The rebel SP MP from Agra, Raj Babbar, has also joined the Congress this month.
Many in the Congress feel that the SP has no other option but to stick to the Congress. As the Congress now enjoys an upper hand, it does not feel it necessary to dance to the SP’s tune, especially when the drummer is Amar Singh.