<b>Letters:</b>Test of alliance

Buoyed by the Uttar Pradesh formula, the secular scientists are now talking about repeating the experiment at the national level for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. However, this idea of forming a common front of all “secular” parties in the country to fight the “communal” Bharatiya Janata Party will have to cross two insurmountable hurdles. First, the distribution of seats among the contestants has to be satisfactory to all the constituents of the would-be “mahagatbandhan” (grand alliance). Second, the alliance has to unanimously agree upon a prime ministerial candidate to head the next government if it succeeds in crossing the