Why Mulayam's PM dream should remain a dream

Rattled by the Modi wave senior Opposition leaders are looking to join hands to defeat the saffron party. One of the outcomes has been the "Janata Parivar". The coalition which brings together senior leaders like — Mulayam Singh Yadav, Nitish Kumar and Sharad Yadav, Lalu Prasad and HD Deve Gowda — will come together at a sit-in at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar on Monday (December 22).

Mulayam Singh, who will head the Janata Parivar, says the sit-in will concentrate on issues such as the government’s failure to bring back black money, rising unemployment and farmer suicides.

It is after more than three decades that the SP president will participate in a protest. Analysts believe the SP leader’s failing health could be an issue, but they admit that Mulayam’s intense desire to be the PM (just like his former political mentor Chandra Shekhar Singh ) will carry him forward.

And just like Chandra Shekhar, Mulayam says he wants to be the PM, even if it is for a few days or months. Sources claim that the SP leader has told family members in private conversations that it is his last wish. Already, they say Mulayam has begun back-door talks with allies to give him the top job. Although the former wrestler knows that his dream is some way from being realised — given the BJP’s massive majority and the fact the party has only finished six months in office — Mulayam knows that the ground work needs to begin now. Apart from these leaders, Mulayam will also have to woo the Congress to join the coalition and back him. The weakened Congress may have no choice, but to go along.

Mulayam’s main rival for the PM’s post was Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) president Lalu Prasad, who harbours a similar dream. But the wily SP leader has found a way out, through marriage. Mulayam’s grand-nephew and Mainpuri MP Tej Pratap Yadav will soon be married to Lalu’s seventh and youngest daughter Raj Laxmi. Said a family friend of the SP chief: “He has demolished the Lalu hurdle through this marriage alliance. This has generated fresh hope in Mulayam that can make his dream come true.”

Recently in Lucknow with his wife and former Bihar CM Rabri Devi, Lalu seemed to give credence to rumours that he would give way to Mulayam, when he said, “the Janata Parivar would fight together against the communal BJP under the leadership of Mulayam”. This was the first occasion when Lalu has been seen to be submissive before Mulayam.

Lalu hasn’t been this way before. The RJD chief paid a visit to riot-hit Muzaffarnagar on December 29, 2013, after being released from jail. In Muzaffarnagar, Lalu claimed that it was he who had stopped Mulayam in the past from inching closer to the PM’s chair. Lalu had also alleged the Akhilesh Yadav government had turned against the riot victims.

“His officers believe people don’t die even in the cold weather of Siberia, let alone in Muzaffarnagar. This is unfortunate”, Lalu had said in reaction to a remark of a senior UP officer. Lalu’s statements clearly made Mulayam lose his cool. Answering Lalu on December 31, 2013, the SP leader said: “A leader reached Muzaffarnagar immediately after being released from jail and said he didn’t let me become PM in past. But we know he’s a Congress stooge. He is out of jail and licking the feet of the Congress.”

Mulayam is hoping that with this marriage alliance, he and Lalu can convince the Congress to join the fold. But even if Congress president Sonia Gandhi agrees, there are other women to contend with. West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, whom he had elbowed out in June 2012, to join the Congress in supporting Pranab Mukherjee as presidential candidate, will clearly not be on his side. The CPI(M) and the CPI, too, have bitter past experiences with Mulayam who had dumped them in 2008 for the Congress-led UPA’s India-US nuclear deal. Although J Jayalalithaa of the AIADMK is silent, her ambition to be the PM is as big as Mulayam’s.

The problem for Mulayam is that he lacks the workmanship of VP Singh who had managed to bring together the Lok Dal, Congress (S), DMK, Telugu Desam Party and Asom Gana Parishad on the same platform. He also lacks his mentor Chandra Shekhar’s charisma to woo parties, especially the Congress.

Lastly, with the party continuing to remain in the headlines for the wrong reasons, Mulayam lacks the credibility factor that is needed to become a future prime minister.