The inimitable V P Singh is at it again. He cannot sit idle. The latest political dispensation is the Jan Morcha or People's Movement that he has floated along with film actor Raj Babbar.It is the political outfit of V P Singh's Kisan Manch.

The latest development comes about from the undercurrents churning the political arena.

The attempt is to try it out in UP first and, if successful, waft around the national scene.

Afterall, alternative governments led by Singh, Chandra Shekhar, I K Gujral, Deve Gowda were all fledglings formed from fragments of political dissent in one's umbrella as well as in other parties.

This time around, thoughts beam around linking the possibility of mid-term elections on completion of the Assembly elections in five States.

Politics being the art of exploiting possibilities, and coalitions having come about bidding goodbye to one-party rule, new patterns could be thought of .

But Singh and his acolytes have to work for creating a formation that would fetch a sizeable number of seats, capable of bargaining with others to cobble together a platform for governance.

The bid to scare Mulayam Singh Yadav in UP, hoping to rope in RJD of Lalu Prasad Yadav, Janata Dal (U) of Sharad Yadav and other fringe groups would rattle the monoliths.

But what about Mayawati's BSP ? If she does not gravitate towards this movement, whose pocketboroughs would be eaten away by V P Singh's outfit ?

Maybe, this would facilitate political players at the national scene to mull about a third front. And what would be the posture of Ramvilas Paswan, Ajit singh et al?


BJP's Pramod Mahajan, when he recovers, would be immobilised for a long time to come.
His winning tactics were the strong points of that party, which now would have to contend with average second-rung leadership. Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj and others are good at oratory, but to what extent they can apply new tools and organise people is a far cry.

Vajpayee being tired out, Advani not the posterboy of RSS anymore, Rajnath Singh lacking the national stature, unpredictable and unsubstantive Uma Bharti out and berating with Madanlal Khurana in tow, the BJP could well be dragging along.Sonia-baiting is its main programme, which in the long run would be counter-productive.

Therefore, fringe parties which have been waiting outside the corridors of power would grab any new-found opportunities to get in.Every one would want a pound of flesh of governance. But with the mainframe rivals, adept at manouevres and manipulations, short-cut methods would not be easily clinchable.