THE BONHOMIE between the Left Front, especially CPM, and Samajwadi Party appears to have vanished into thin air. While comrades at Gopalan Bhawan (CPM headquarters) in Delhi have clearly expressed their disenchantment with the ruling Samajwadi Party, Chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav is reportedly unhappy over their betrayal. The general belief in the SP is that the CPM had acted in this manner to serve its own political interest at the Centre as well as in UP.
The Communist Party of India (CPI), which had already joined hands with VP Singh-led Jan Morcha Alliance (JMA), today expressed satisfaction over the CPM moving away from the SP.
With this development, Yadav’s call last month from Hardwar for the formation of Third Front has also been washed away with the Ganga waters. Yadav had assembled the entire Left Front on the bank of Gomti river last year to take on Congress-led UPA government. Though the rally was basically aimed at forcing the UPA government to support Iran on the nuclear issue, the SP tried to a give message of emergence of a united pressure group against the Centre.
However, with Iran N-issue taking back seat, LF’s warmth towards Yadav subsided. Jan Morcha convener Raj Babbar subsequently established contact with the CPM for electoral alliance in Uttar Pradesh. It is learnt that he has offered to especially campaign for the LF candidates.
Significantly, emotive issues have also failed to catch the imagination of the people in the State. First Yadav wanted to mobilise Muslims on Iran issue. While minority Sh’ites warmly responded to the overtures, majority Sunni community turned uninterested. Sensing the poor response, SP dumped the issue. Now it is time for UP Shias to turn hostile to the SP for Yadav’s defence of deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
{{/usCountry}}Significantly, emotive issues have also failed to catch the imagination of the people in the State. First Yadav wanted to mobilise Muslims on Iran issue. While minority Sh’ites warmly responded to the overtures, majority Sunni community turned uninterested. Sensing the poor response, SP dumped the issue. Now it is time for UP Shias to turn hostile to the SP for Yadav’s defence of deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
{{/usCountry}}While the chief minister has condemned death punishment to Saddam, Shia clerics, including Yadav’s close allies, Dr Kalbe Sadiq and Maulana Kalbe Jawad, have welcomed the Iraqi court judgment.
The SP has now been trying to wriggle out of the situation by quietly sidetracking the issue. With Yadav supporting Saddam, it would be quite difficult for his Shia acolytes to support him in the election.
On Mayawati’s ‘Muslims-are-fanatics’ statement, the SP has now been making desperate attempt to mobilise the community. Even though the party has bought support of some Mullahs on the issue, the community by and large has ignored it.