New Dawn for UPA!!

The BJP, in particular, must seri­ously ponder over the reasons for its successive parliamentary election defeats. What should worry the party is its drubbing in several stronghold states (thanks to the anti-minority stance that it has taken) Biju Janata Dal’s Naveen Patnaik has delivered it an equally severe blow to the party by demonstrating in Orissa that the BJP, as an ally, is an avoidable pack. This fares ill for the BJP as the NDA it leads may no longer be an attractive proposition for ex­isting and potential future allies and JD(U) in particular in the near future.

Individually for the Congress, its performance in Uttar Pradesh, should be very satisfying. For almost two decades, the Congress leadership has been looking for that elusive sign of party's organisational revival in the state in election after election. The party has reasons to smile as it has doubled its tally of Lok Sabha seats from the state, partially crediting it to Mulayam’s idiotic stance and Rahul’s charisma relegating in the process its rival BJP to the fourth place. In fact, the Congress is not far behind the two strong parties - the BSP and SP.


The Con­gress, contrary to many projections, has also retained power in Andhra Pradesh assembly in an ebullient man­ner. The mandate gives the much needed sense of govern­mental stability the country needs in these testing times of economic slowdown. It should allow Manmohan Singh's second ministry to deal with many pressing con­cerns without having to yield to the unreasonable de­mands of the troublesome partners it had in the form of Left.

The pioneer of the econom­ic reforms programme that Singh is, he will have the challenging task of shielding the country's economy from the global recession and bring it to high growth trajectory to protect jobs and incomes. In the last year of its term, the UPA government was weighed down by the stock market meltdown, high inflation rate (mainly due to US meltdown). The looming general elections had, to some extent, constrict­ed his government's ability to boldly tackle the econom­ic challenges. Now, the emphatic nature of the renewed mandate should enable the ever cheering Singh to unveil a new deal for the nation.