Dance of democracy

MM ere paas ma hai (I have mother) — the M famous dialogue from a popular Hindi M movie seems apt in many situations, be it promotional ads or corporate and political wars. As the final round of polling takes place today and moves to form a new government begin, the question preceding this filmy dialogue seems perfectly in place for politicos out there: Tumhare paas kya hai? (Who is with you?) From north to south, (both regions are said to be vital in deciding who will rule the country for the next five years) every political party, small and big, has started assessing the post-poll scenario. In the north, Congress seems happy with Mulayam Singh Yadav, Lalu Prasad and Ramvilas Paswan, while rival BJP is riding high on its alliance with Ajit Singh’s Rashtriya Lok Dal and Janata Dal (United).
In the south, the situation is a bit grim. With the entry of actor Chiranjeevi’s Praja Rajyam in Andhra Pradesh, no one knows which political party will be on which side after the day of counting on May 16.
The Telangana Rashtra Samiti is already sailing in two different boats in the state and the Centre. In Tamil Nadu, rivals Jayalalithaa and Karunanidhi are being courted by everyone. Whether all their prepoll partners will stand together in the post-poll scenario is the biggest guessing game being played out.
Move to the west, and the game has started there, too. In Maharashtra, Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar is leaving no stone unturned to garner support across the spectrum to fulfil his ambition of becoming the prime minister.
In the east, Trinamool’s Mamata Banerjee is already planning her next move as her alliance partner, Congress, has once again started warming up to her key rivals, the Left parties, with the latter too making the right noises. Political alliances seems to be changing by the hour, leaving the voter in the world’ largest democracy perplexed as never before.