Playing for the team

The Congress is still to get a perfect grasp of coalition mechanics.

After a serious battle of wills,the DMK and the Congress have reconciled,and the Congress has been allotted 63 seats to fight in Tamil Nadu. Meanwhile,wrenching negotiations with Mamata Banerjee are in progress for the West Bengal polls,and party general secretary Digvijaya Singh has hinted that the party would eschew alliances and fight for itself in Assam. This push and pull is inevitable in any alliance,but its particularly difficult for the Congress,whose relationship with coalition partners has never been a comfortably symbiotic one.

Theres an inevitable tension between the party and its regional partners. The longer the Congress relies on them to coast through the polls,the more it perceives itself draining the life out of its own organisation in those places. In Bihar,its decision to soldier on alone backfired,giving it a mere four seats,revealing its feebleness in the state. Even in Uttar Pradesh,though the partys 2009 Lok Sabha victory has been much trumpeted,its performance has been sub-par in assembly elections. However,the party is open about its desire to rebuild itself across the country. The allies,for their part,are therefore often suspicious of the Congresss commitment to a durable relationship.

But even more than the fact that the Congress and its partners have competing larger goals,the problem is psychological. The Congress has only lately begun to play well with others. It was only in 2001 after its 81st plenary that the Congress announced its readiness to initiate coalitions with like-minded parties or those who could complement it in states where it had withered away. In 2004,Sonia Gandhi made active efforts to patch together a set of partnerships. However,the party seems almost hardwired to resist teamwork,after decades of easy dominance. Unlike the BJP,which energetically pursued other parties to expand its influence,and created its presence in several states by partnering with and eventually swallowing up other parties (like the Janata Dal in Gujarat),the Congress has been reluctant to engage. (Even so,the BJP found it difficult to hold on to all its allies once it lost power.) The Congresss hauteur is evident in its political interactions for instance,UPA 2 doesnt have a coordination committee or a common minimum programme,refusing to institutionally fuse its energies with allies and work as a single force in government. However,for now at least,it has no choice but to balance its larger plans with its provisional ones,and try to get along with its allies.