As India Goes To The Polls There Are Many Contendors For The Top Job

India is going to choose its new government in May and there are many contenders to the top post of Prime Minister.

With the UPA led by the Congress a shadow of its former self after its central glue, Lalu Prasad Yadav, sounded the bugle of revolt in Bihar, there seems to be little chance of Manmohan Singh, the current Prime Minister, returning to 7, Race Course, the Priministerial residence.

The chances of Lalkrishna Advani, the perpetual Prime Ministerial candidate of Bharatiya Janata Party, are not too bright either. The NDA has disintegrated with Biju Patnaik, Chandrababu Naidu and a host of earlier allies saying a polite no to the continuation of the alliance.

The more serious problem for BJP and Advani lies elsewhere, though. The party is not united this time. There are two main factions undermining each other. On the one hand is the Advani faction whose star boys are Narendra Modi and Arun Jaitley, and on the other is the faction led by the current party president, the wily UP politician Rajnath Singh. Recently there was a major showdown between Rajnath and Jaitley, in which the former came out the better.

The party has no flagship issue this time, either. It tried terrorism during the state elections recently and found that the voters were in no mood for it.

It made a feeble effort to revive the Ram mandir issue by promising to build the temple if returned to power. But there are no takers for this old issue as people battle with more down-to-earth problems like high rates of food inflation, sagging economy and widespread poverty.

That leads us to the Third Front which hopes to step into the space vacated by the two mainstream parties. With Lalu, Paswan and Mulayam joining hands and later Sharad Pawar and the Left siding with them the Third Front appears to have gained the critical mass necessary to become a serious contenter for Delhi.

And finally, we have Mayamati, who is keeping her cards close to her chest. She can very well prove to be the dark horse that finally wins the race. The stunning performance of her Bahujan Samajwadi Party in the assembly elections in UP has demonstrated that she has the grit and the charisma needed to project herself across the country as the future Prime Minister. She is playing her cards well, snubbing other contendors to the throne like Jayalalitha and keeping her distance from the Third Front. This will put her in a good place post election to poach on the Third Front candidates should she fall short of numbers.

Whatever the outcome, the political scene is set for a sea change after the elections. Though it is difficult to predict who will be the new Prime Minister at this moment in time, it is certain that the political forces backing the new Prime Minister will be vastly different from that we have seen in the last 60 years.