The UPA managers are apparently confident of the Trinamul Congress, led by West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, returning to its fold and joining the government at the Centre.
“Take it from me, the Trinamul Congress is joining the government before the general election,” a Union minister said.
Ms Banerjee might be wanting an early Lok Sabha elections but she has realised that her party cannot fight the electoral battle with the Left and the Congress simultaneously.
She knows that this will split the anti-Left votes and thus help Marxists, he said.
She wants a financial package from the Centre under any head which the Union government would consider, he said.
The talk of a third front, the Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav’s threat of withdrawing support, his appeal to regional parties in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Maharashtra to come together to rule the Centre and the DMK’s exit has not put the Centre on tenterhooks for the simple reason that regional parties are sharply divided and, thereby, cannot emerge as an alternate to the national parties.
On the other hand, former Congress allies — DMK, Trinamul Congress, TRS and even the newly-formed YSR Congress led by Jagan Mohan Reddy — are refusing to ally with the BJP-led NDA, which has brought only one party, the Haryana Janhit Congress(BL),-to its fold.
The Bharatiya Janata Party’s former allies — the Biju Janata Dal, the AIADMK and even the TDP — are unwilling to return to the fold. And if the BJP projects Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate then the NDA will split, the UPA managers predicted.
They further said the timing of the Lok Sabha elections would be decided by the Congress and not supporting parties.