Regional leaders losing Centre control
Regional leaders are gradually losing their control over the Centre. While the TDP chief N. Chandrababu Naidu and the Marxists had played the role of a kingmaker during the NDA and UPA-I regime and the regional leaders might have compelled the Congress to back the United Front government earlier, they are now slowly
becoming irrelevant.
The Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamul Congress is the major regional party confident of making a history in West Bengal in the electoral battle on its own, but lacks the national ambition.
On the other hand, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, who checked the RJD chieftain Lalu Prasad Yadav for a second time, knows very well that he can become a Prime Minister only on the support of either the BJP or the Congress. Sources said he has an ambition to become a Prime Minister but his charishma is confined to Bihar and works only against Mr Lalu Prasad Yadad.
While main players in the Hindi heartland — BSP supremo Mayawati, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav — are confined to Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, the Janata Dal(S) led by former Prime Minister H.D. Devegowda is fighting a battle for its survival in Karnataka after ditching both — the Congress and the BJP.
Now, it is keen to rally with the Congress to oust the BJP in Karnataka but the current mood in the Sonia Gandhi-led party is not to revive the JD(S).
The AIADMK’s only ambition is to defeat the DMK in the Tamil Nadu Assembly poll in April. The DMK had managed to remain in power at the Centre since 1996 and in three different regimes the UF, the NDA and the UPA, the Jayalalithaa-led party could not succeed so far in becoming a “king maker” at the Centre although it had a history of backing by the Congress and the BJP.
The Shiv Sena lost its bargaining power due to the emergence of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena floated by Raj Thackeray. And a section of the BJP views that Raj would be the real leader who can carry forward the Shiv Sena’ legacy in the letter and spirit. And that is the reason behind the BJP’s attempts to keep the MNS in good humour. But the Shiv Sena is unlikely to play a role at the national level.
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