Click to play videoNew Delhi: It's showing that the fifth and final year of the UPA has just begun. Sixteen months before it is required to the face the electorate, the Central Government switched over to the election mode.
Its spin doctors believe that packaging ought to begin early. After all, the product comes with many side effects — anti-incumbency, rising prices, terror death toll — which has made the UPA Government an expensive proposition.
In the fourth year itself, key Government decisions are a pointer that the party has an eye on polls:
- Farm loan waiver worth a staggering Rs 60,000 crore
- Sachar Report with the Government asking for priority for the minorities in jobs
- Human Resource Development Ministry pitching for reservation for OBCs
- Pleasing the civil servants through the Sixth Pay Commission report
But there are the usual spoilers, inflation being one of them which causes maximum damage.
Law Minister, H R Bhardwaj says on inflation, "There are problems and economic reforms take time. We need more time to sort this out."
For the UPA, faced with anti-incumbency, a new look is very important.
It is aware that some of its allies cannot help reap political dividends, but now the Samajwadi party is no longer untouchable and West Bengal's Trinamul Congress is a possible ally. JD(U) is also being courted from a distance.
As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi celebrate yet another year in power, there's some food for thought for as the NDA experience shows — glossy publicity and strategic decisions may not impress the voter.
(With inputs from Diptosh Majumdar in New Delhi)
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