The Three New Techniques of Forming Governments in India

 

The Three New Techniques of Forming Governments in India

Shrikant G. Talageri

 

Elections and party politics are perhaps a new phenomenon in the world, and one which came into existence only in the last few centuries. In India, although we have had party elections even before 1947 − indeed the party and electoral politics of the pre-1947 years (of the Congress, Communist, Hindu Mahasabha, Muslim League, etc.) laid the basic foundations of post-1947 party and electoral politics in the subcontinent − it is the "evolution" of electoral politics from these basic foundations in the post-1947 period that is intriguing and mind-boggling: from parties of all kinds (parties breaking-up into multiple pieces and reuniting, often temporarily, in different combinations), to caste politics (caste-based parties, reservations, caste-coalitions, etc.), to booth-capturing, to gangsters and bahubalis fighting elections from prison, to dynastic politics, to election engineering (forcing the main opponent to withdraw at the last minute, putting up multiple Independent candidates with names similar to that of the main opponent, etc.), India alone seems to have seen every shade of dubious or dirty electoral politics.

If we examine the electoral history of various European and American nations, of Communist countries, and of other "Third World" countries of Asia and Africa, we will see even more unbelievable kinds of political tactics, techniques and strategies being employed by different politicians in their quest for power.

The three main objectives are:

1. To influence voters to get votes.

2. To win seats to form the government.

3. To form the government, with or without a majority of the seats..

All these things are to be achieved using all possible ways and, by hook or by crook, through pre-election, election-time and post-election strategies.

 

As the saying goes, "there is nothing new under the sun". But, in spite of this fact, I find myself marveling at the new ways that the BJP has devised (perhaps, as a little digging into the past may show, in some cases with some obscure or unremembered past precedents as models) to subvert the electoral process.

The culture of "aya ram, gaya ram" or people jumping from one party to another, and of past foes ganging up together against past friends, is nothing new to Indian politics. What seems to be new is the degree to which these tactics have been fine-tuned and refined to a science or an art by the BJP. They have even given a new official name to this scientific process: it is called "Operation Lotus". In the last decade or so, using various tactics (I will not bother to list here what they are or may be), the BJP has managed to form governments in many states, after failing to win a majority on the basis of counted election results, by engineering defections from the other parties (mainly the Congress), e.g. in Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, etc.

But in the last few months or so, as a preliminary to the presently approaching Lok Sabha Elections 2024, three new techniques have been developed (with the active help of a captive Election Commission) which must be noted to understand what is happening to electoral democracy in India, and to appreciate the highly advanced and futuristic state of Indian electoral politics. They may be called:

1. Operation Split-and-Officialize (Maharashtra).

2. Operation Disqualification (Chandigarh).

3. Operation Uncontested-Victory (Surat).

 

1. Operation Split-and-Officialize (Maharashtra)

The state assembly (Vidhan Sabha) elections took place in Maharashtra in 2019, with the BJP and Shiv Sena aligned on one side (the alliance being called the Maha-yuti) and (mainly) the Congress and NCP on the opposite side (the alliance being called the Maha-aghadi). The results (out of a total of 288 seats in the assembly) were as follows:

Maha-yuti (161):   BJP (105), Shiv Sena (56).

Maha-aghadi: (98):  Congress (44), NCP (54).

Others (29).

 

Clearly, the Maha-yuti had won the polls by a clear majority. But sharp differences developed between the BJP and the Shiv Sena over the issue of Chief Ministership. As a result, the two partners started exploring options of breaking the alliance and aligning with one or the other of the other parties to form a government. While the Shiv Sena was unofficially holding talks with NCP leaders in this respect, the BJP tried to execute a "midnight coup" (as it had done earlier in the matter of cutting off thousands of trees in the Aarey Complex) by hijacking a section of the NCP. However, this was nipped in the bud, and a government (cutting across the two electoral alliances) was formed between the Shiv Sena, Congress and NCP: having a total of 154 seats in the 288-seat assembly (plus of course the usual extras from among the "Other" parties not part of either alliance). This government lasted from 28-11-2019 to 29-6-2022.

On 29-2-2022, a section of the Shiv Sena split from the main party (which was aligned with the Congress and NCP),  and realigned itself with the BJP, and formed a new coalition government consisting of the BJP (105) and the breakaway Shinde Shiv Sena (40 of the original 56 Shiv Sena MLAs).

On 2-7-2023, a section of the NCP split from the main party (which was aligned with the Congress and UBT Shiv Sena),  and realigned itself with the BJP and joined the Maha-yuti government.

 

All this (and there are some more murky things which we will skip) is a sad commentary on Indian politics. But there is nothing new here. What followed was the new part:

Now there were two Shiv Sena parties (led respectively by Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde) both claiming to be the original Shiv Sena, and two NCP parties (led respectively by Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar) both claiming to be the original NCP.

There have been defections and splits in all parties in India throughout the history of electoral politics in Independent India. But whenever a faction split away, howsoever big the leader leading the break, the original name and electoral symbol of the original party have remained with the original party and not with the breakaway leader:

When Indira Gandhi broke away from the Congress in 1969, and formed a new party, her party came to be known as "Congress R" and the original Congress came to be known as "Congress O" (for Old but perhaps also Original). and "Congress O" retained the earlier electoral symbol of a "pair of yoked bullocks", while the "Congress R" was given a new electoral symbol of a "cow and calf".

Again, Indira Gandhi split the party in January 1978, and formed a new part called "Congress I": again her party was allotted a new election symbol: a "hand". Although the party got a landslide victory in 1984, it was only in 1996 that the Election Commission allowed the "I" to be dropped from the name and the party could again be called the "Indian National Congress" (but with the "hand" symbol).

When Sharad Pawar split from the Congress in 1999, he personally founded the NCP or the "Nationalist Congress Party" with a new electoral symbol of a "clock".

The Shiv Sena has seen many defections of groups of leaders or elected MLAs leaving the party. none of them claimed to represent the original party, or claimed the Shiv Sena electoral symbol, a "bow and arrow":

Long ago, in the seventies, a popular leader Bandu Shingre broke away and formed a party called Prati-Shiv-Sena. Later, Chhagan Bhujbal left with a significant group of MLAs a leaders, but he did not claim to represent the "real" Shiv Sena, he just joined the Congress/NCP. And so, later, did Narayan Rane and his group of supporters. When a big split took place with Raj Thackeray forming his party the MNS, he neither claimed the name nor the symbol of the Shiv Sena. There have been other genuine splits and defections based on differences, without anyone trying to pirate the name and electoral symbol of the Shiv Sena.

In fact almost every time, anywhere in India, one group or faction has broken away from an existing party, it has taken on a new name and electoral symbol and not tried to claim or usurp the name and symbol of its parent party: whether the countless parties (including the BJP itself) which broke away from the Janata Party formed in 1977, or the CPI(M) which broke away from the CPI, or the MDMK, PMK, AIADMK, etc. which broke away from the DMK, or the TMC which broke away from the Congress, or the various caste parties which split into smaller ones.

This time, with different tactics (that we will not bother to go into here), the BJP not only split the Shiv Sena and the NCP, but even used a captive Election Commission to declare that the breakaway groups that split from the original parties and joined up with the BJP were the original Shiv Sena and NCP, and to have the name and electoral symbols of both the parties allotted to the two breakaway factions.

This represents a totally new phenomenon in India politics.

 

II. Operation Disqualification (Chandigarh)

A second new and seminally historical technique was introduced and employed by the BJP in the Chandigarh mayor's election. Though it may appear a small and local affair − just a municipal mayoral election after all − it had great significance because of the approaching Lok Sabha elections, the AAP-Congress alliance, and the growing power of the AAP in Punjab and Haryana.

In these mayoral elections which took place in the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation on 30-1-2024, the AAP (13 councilors) and Congress (7 councilors) formed an alliance with a majority of 20 in a house of 35 councilors. The BJP had 14 and the Akali Dal 1. Although one vote (a 36th vote) was to be cast by the local MP (of the BJP), it was inevitable that the Congress-AAP candidate Kuldeep Kumar would win over the BJP candidate Manoj Sonkar.

But surprisingly, the AAP-Congress candidate got only 12 votes while the BJP candidate got 16 votes − while 8 votes were declared invalid by the Returning Officer, Anil Masih (interestingly, a Christian convert). The BJP candidate was declared Mayor, and there were all round celebrations by the BJP.

But the bubble burst when it became clear that the Returning Officer was a BJP member, and the 8 votes he declared invalid were all in support of the AAP-Congress candidate. And, for a rare wonder, the whole sordid drama where the Returning Officer invalidated the 8 AAP-Congress votes, including the sly looks directed at the camera by him as he carried out the shady operation, was recorded on tape! This became a national (and even international) news-item and the Supreme Court not only declared the results invalid, and directed that the AAP-Congress candidate should be declared the elected mayor, but also passed strong strictures against the BJP-member Returning Officer who carried out the fraud, and ordered that stringent legal action should be taken against him for his criminal attempt to subvert the electoral process.

This represents a totally new and ultra-brazen technique or "operation" in the history of Indian electoral politics. To my mind it not only shows how much further the ruling party will not hesitate to go when the electoral process is taking place over a voter-base of lakhs of voters spread out over a large area, but even, for the first time, made me realize that the popular charge of critics of the BJP that the EVM machines have a big role in their electoral victories may not be all that completely wrong. Apparently honesty, ethics and scruples have no place in Indian electoral politics today.

 

III. Operation Uncontested-Victory (Surat)

The Lok Sabha elections 2024 are going on, with one phase of voting in 108 seats already over. The counting of votes for all the phases of voting will commence on 4-6-2024. Nearly one and a half months are left for this crucial event. But, amazingly, the result for one seat, Surat in Gujarat, has already been declared: the BJP candidate, Mukesh Dalal, has been declared the winner. And here we get this newest of techniques: the technique of winning a Lok Sabha seat without a single voter in the constituency having cast his or her vote!

There is no doubt whatsoever (to my mind at least) that the BJP would have won this seat anyway in the normal course of things: opinion polls and experts have consistently predicted that the BJP will win every single one of the 26 seats in Gujarat. So what was the need for this new technique to be employed here? Clearly this was basically a preliminary test-case to gauge the efficacy and durability of this technique.

To get down to the facts, there were 11 candidates in the fray: Mukesh Dalal of the BJP and Nilesh Kumbhhani of the Congress (AAP did not put up a candidate of its own despite indications of its increasing influence in Surat, where it had won a number of seats in the municipal elections a year or two ago, since it had agreed to support the Congress candidate), another dummy candidate of the Congress, four candidates from smaller parties, and four Independents. And then the dramas started, personally conducted throughout by the state BJP President, C.R.Patil, who later described the result as his personal tribute for the PM:

The Congress candidate filed his nomination with the Election Commission official alone and unaccompanied by the mandatory proposers to his candidature, and the official accepted the application which itself was unprecedented. The three proposers were not Congress party functionaries, as should normally have been the case, but relatives and business partners of the candidate Nilesh Kumbhani. The dummy Congress candidate  − parties often put up dummy candidates in case the main candidate gets disqualified − Suresh Padsala filed his application with only one proposer, again a relative of Nilesh Kumbhani. All the four proposers for the two Congress candidates then went into hiding within a few hours of the filing of the nominations, but before disappearing they gave written affidavits to the district official as soon as the nominations were filed, stating that their signatures on the applications had been forged. The EC officials forthwith rejected the applications of both the Congress candidates. The other 8 candidates in the fray (4 from smaller parties, and the 4 Independents) also went missing. They were all found to have congregated in the La Meridian hotel at Baroda, and were closeted in a meeting with the BJP state president C.R.Patil, and all these 8 candidates withdrew their nominations for the Surat seat.

Now, the BJP candidate, Mukesh Dalal, was the only candidate left in the fray, and he was declared elected unopposed to the Surat constituency, giving the first victory in this Lok Sabha elections to the BJP, 40 days before the start of counting! Needless to say, the "Congress candidate" Nilesh Kumbhani, is reported to be all set to be welcomed into the BJP.

 

An incredible story. But (apologists will crow) was the Congress party sleeping, or is it completely brainless and stupid? Yes, every time a candidate or party wins any election, the stupidity, or lack of alertness and preparation, of the opponents, always has a part in it. But if that is the only point that apologists will be able to make in order to excuse what happened in Surat, then the prospects in India − for the future of Indian democracy and public morals, and the welfare of the Indian people − are indeed bleak beyond description.

Predictably, supporters of the BJP will be gleeful and triumphant over all these things happening in India. And that is the biggest tragedy.