Deepening discord between major coalition partners
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: February 23, 2022 -

ASSAM chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma's assertion on Monday that coalition partner National People's Party (NPP) will no more be a part of the next government leaves nothing to doubt that the allies are drifting apart irreconcilably.

When the coalition government was formed after the mixed mandate in the 2017 election, it was the BJP that initiated the post-poll pact with all the MLAs of non-Congress parties.

To keep the pack intact, the BJP-led government offered plump ministerial berths to all its major allies followed by appointment of the remaining legislators as parliamentary secretaries in order to prevent revolt or open expression of disenchantment by the MLAs.

The semblance of camaraderie among the alliance partners started to wane as reports surfaced about mid-term cabinet reshuffling.

While the apprehension over possible discord arising out of portfolio rejigging delayed the process, results of the by-elections held in five assembly constituencies in the third year of governance left no other option but to accommodate new faces as had been proclaimed during the campaigning.

The Rajya Sabha election too created fissures among the alliance partners which further deepened after the NPP MLAs revolted and briefly left the coalition government to sup with the opposition Congress.

Besieged with such topsy-turvy events, the strain in the relationship between BJP and NPP came to the public domain ultimately leading to what could be described as shadow boxing between the two.

Under such a circumstance, there is no surprise element when Himanta Biswa mocked at NPP, saying no one in India knows it and voting for its candidates in the Manipur elections would be fruitless as the party has no value.

Notably, the contention by Himanta Sarma, who is the convener of the BJP-led North East Democratic Alliance, that NPP MLAs were allotted ministerial berths in the government because of the BJP makes it crystal clear that for now, the allies have turned into sworn enemies.

Moreover, it was Himanta's declaration that NPP will not be a part of the next government in the state which could be construed as formal termination of the five-year political honeymoon.

Whether or not BJP will form the next government on its own will be decided by the adult franchisees but it could be safely stated that in case of yet another hung mandate there would naturally be hectic parleys for pacification and hard bargaining between the two for it is obvious that NPP won't take the risk of joining hands without settling the score first.

It is also obvious that NPP, the dominant party of the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance government and an ally of the BJP in both Meghalaya and Manipur since 2017, does not subscribe to the BJP's intention to assert superiority as is evident from its campaign narrative for the assembly election centring on BjP-bashing.

The NPP, which won four seats in the 2017 elections, fielding 38 candidates testifies that it has firmly set sight on becoming a formidable force after the polls.

Among other leaders, NPP chief Conrad Sangma too has been claiming that his party would emerge as the single largest party in the. state.

Hence, in case of a mixed mandate then aggressive horse trading and rapprochement exercises among the major political parties would be the norm.