Elections to the 15^th Lok Sabha are underway. This election has been characterized as one devoid of any major campaign issue. It appears that both the two national parties –BJP and Congress- are losing their influence. They are losing out to smaller niche, rural parties and caste groups. This is turning out to be a great opportunity for a wide variety of smaller party leaders and the Left parties to exert their influence. They all are aiming at either becoming kings or king-makers.

All these parties and leaders have come together to form the Third Front. Their only common ideal? Ambition. Whenever the non-Congress, non-BJP lead alliances have ruled the country, there have been long periods of social, economic and political instability. The first non-Congress government formed by the Janata Party ruled for 3 years (1977-1980) and had two Prime ministers – Morarji Desai and Charan Singh. The next non-Congress, non-BJP government was the National Front government which lasted for 2 years (1989-1991) and had two Prime ministers – V.P.Singh and Chandrasekhar. The United Front government lasted less than 2 years (1996-1998) and had 2 Prime ministers – H.D. DeveGowda and I.K. Gujral.

If we look at the trend, we will notice that unstable Third Front governments and stable BJP/Congress led governments come to power alternately. So if that trend continues, we can be sure that we will see another unstable Third Front government coming to power this time.

Interestingly, two new groups seem to be emerging in the political scene. The first group claims it is a non-Congress, non-BJP and non-Third Front alliance and calls itself the Fourth Front. The constituents of the Front are the parties of the movie stars Praja Rajyam Party (of Chiranjeevi in Andhra Pradesh) and DMDK (of Vijaykanth in Tamil Nadu). The alliance within the UPA alliance – Lalu Yadav, Ram Vilas Paswan and Mulayam Yadav , Sharad Pawar – also seem to be gravitating towards the Fourth Front.

The second is a disparate group of individuals who are mostly highly successful professionals in their chosen fields and have entered the politics with noble intentions. They are contesting as independents in urban constituencies that have higher number of educated middle class voters. They include Meera Sanyal from South Mumbai, Capt. Gopinath from South Bangalore, Sarath Babu from South Chennai, Ashish Saxena (a 30 year old social worker-) and Mallika Sarabhai from Ahmadabad among others.

The established parties are worried about these independents and hence brand them as spoilers and many voters wonder if elected, will they achieve anything worthwhile since they will not have any clout in the government. Since voters do not perceive them as winnable, they also have a lower chance of getting these votes.

It is very likely that these candidates do not win this election. But there is definitely hope for them for the next election. The Indian middle class is expanding and the number of urban Lok Sabha seats is increasing. The frustration of the middle class voters at non-performing politicians is increasing and if there is a viable alternative, these voters are definitely going to vote for that alternative.

In my mind, the best alternative is the formation of the Fifth Front. This Front should bring together all the capable independents under one fold and have a set of common manifesto. The candidates themselves should have individual manifestos that touch upon the developmental issues pertaining to their constituency.

They should also rope in similar minded people like Shashi Tharoor, K. Pandiarajan from other parties and parties like Lok Satta, Lok Paritran, Jago Party and Professionals Party of India. This Front will have no caste, regional or linguistic identity and will have the noble purpose of serving the country. The Front will focus on developmental activities for the countries and not try to divide the country along various lines.

Is it possible? The answer is yes. Is it probable? Tough to say. What do you think?

Popularity: 29%

Every morning I devour practically the entire Hindu and The Times of India and attempt at deciphering meaning out of the cacophony of our national politics. At night I worship the idiot box and sink in the theatrics of the likes of Professor Laloo, star struck Amar Singh, imperious Behn ji, of course our own Amma and countless others. At the end, I realize I am not any wiser having listened to their discussions. Like people crouching happily around a circle watching the gory fight among a few cocks and hens I allow myself to get titillated by the ongoing bawdy carnival. I resolve to wean myself away from these temptations in future. Invariably, the steaming tea the next day morning reminds me of the steamy headlines in the papers and I start all over again.

Having said this, I understand the grave implications of the elections. All the cocks and hens fighting it out in the middle have the power to make or break our lives.

Kandamangalm’s article on Ms.Meera Sanyal entering the fray as an independent MP candidate from Mumbai South was timely. I admire the idealism conveyed through her web site and I bet she wants to make a difference. But, I feel sad for Meera Sanyal. There is hardly any chance of the miracle win she is hoping for. She is surely a realist, why is she doing this to herself? Perhaps in politics the loser also wins in some ways. The number of votes a candidate gets is like the number of customers a business can boast of. And politics is all about leveraging with numbers.

I agree with Madhavan that Meera should have got into a political party and increased her chances of winning. At any rate, why is she contesting against Milind Deora who has already made a name for working with vision and dynamism? Tell me, what is the use of felling a good, sturdy tree? Are you against him just because he is his father’s son? May the forces be with you, Meera. And, don’t lose heart!

Kandamangalm’s suggestion to vote for the individual rather than the party is okay with me, but there is a part of me that rebels. If a good man stands from Raj Thackeray’s party in my constituency, I will not vote for that candidate. Nor will I consider a very good candidate from any of the archaic communist parties. A man is defined by his ideologies and thoughts.

That brings me to the topic of a very good man who is not necessarily in terrific company. I am speaking of Mr.Pandia Rajan who is the D.M.D.K (Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam) candidate from Virudhunagar constituency near Madurai. This party was started in 2006 by popular Tamil film actor Vijaykanth also known as black M.G.R or ‘Captain Vijaykanth’. Ever since he started his acting career in 1979, Vijaykanth has carefully nurtured his image in the mould of M.G.R, as a do-gooder and a champion of the oppressed. He has been very vocal about the plight of the Tamils in Sri Lanka. In spite of overtures from several parties, D.M.D.K has decided to approach the people alone, without any alliance.

Mr.K.Pandia Rajan dived into the rough waters of Indian politics more than two years back. He first joined the BJP and after being with them for more than a year he became disillusioned with them and joined the party of Vijaykanth. Why is he in the company of a temperamental film star? Perhaps he loathes being a small fish in a big river. Being the risk taker that he is, Mr.Pandia Rajan smells some heady stuff brewing in Vijaykanth’s party. He is now a big fish in D.M.D.K and is now aiming for the stars. He is surely a person to watch out for in Indian politics.

Pandia Rajan’s story is the stuff of heroism and grit. Born in Vilampatti village in Sivakasi district, he was brought up by his grand father as his father who was a worker at a match factory died when Pandia Rajan was just three months old. After studying in the village school, he went to Coimbatore to study engineering at the PSG College of Technology. He joined XLRI, Jamshedpur for his MBA.

K. Pandia Rajan founded Ma Foi Management Consultants Limited in 1992 with an aim to make it a one-stop shop for all HR needs. With a capital of just Rs. 60,000, Pandia Rajan has transformed Ma Foi which now finds jobs for around 5,500 people every month. Today, its turn over is Rs.550 crore. Very soon, they are likely to provide more employment than all the Government employment exchanges in India put together. Ma Foi is now part of Vedior NV, a 6.85 billion Euro staffing company and the third largest in the world.

Pandia Rajan’s belief in giving back to society for what life has given him inspired him to create Ma Foi Foundation which works towards education for children, women empowerment, and capacity building for NGOs. Ma Foi Foundation, spear-headed by Mr.Pandia Rajan and his wife have made very good impact in several villages.

I have no doubt that Mr.Pandia Rajan has his game plan firmly in place. If he and we are lucky, we have another clean, effective and visionary politician in the making. Whether he makes it big in politics or not, he is another reason for all of us to be proud as Indians. He is a living example teaching us about the importance of being earnest in life and also in politics.

Popularity: 29%