Partners of the Government

As I sit here at home with fever that is always on the move from 102 to 99 and then back up to 102.5, I notice that my fever is as inconsistent as the exit polls that are being shown on the news. UPA with 200+ seats and another channel with NDA with 200+. Then you turn it on a little later and the numbers have been reversed. The seat counting will end tomorrow, as I hope will my battle with the flu. 

A lot of scenarios are being presented for what will happen in the next few days. The range of possibilities being shown is so wide that the number of Prime Ministerial candidates is more than the number of different opening batsman that the Mumbai Indians are trying out. Anyone could be PM. 

But all said and done, at the moment, most people will say that either the UPA or NDA will form the government NO THIRD FRONT. Thank God for that one.

Knowing that the third front will not come in to power is a major relief. And frankly, I am alright with either the UPA or the NDA. Yet, there still is one more thing to be concerned about. Who will either of them partner with to form the Government?

We know from the last 5 years that partnering with the Left has its draw backs. Any time the UPA wanted to do something that the Left did not like the Left would flex their muscles and it would curb our country's growth. So who the UPA or NDA partner with is going to be critical. The bargaining power that smaller parties will have with regards to portfolios in the cabinet, economic, domestic and international policy is going to determine how well the Government performs.

The concern is that the Left, the Samajwadi Party, the BSP, AIADMK, DMK etc. etc. are all hopeless in terms of their interest of the country. For them it is all about power and a self fulfilling belief that they control the fate of the Prime Minister of the worlds largest democracy. I just hope that whoever forms the government has enough seats of their own not to get bull dozed in to giving away important portfolios and giving in on important policies to their lesser partners.

So more than who eventually becomes PM, I am interested in how and with whose help they become PM.

On a complete side note- I was pretty disappointed to see some poor sportsmanship by the Mumbai Indians yesterday in the thriller against the Rajasthan Royals. As the match entered a critical stage a ball thrown from the boundry hit the umpire and was deflected away from the closest fielder. In such a case the batsmen never take a run, but Nayar and Harbhajan did. This kept Nayar on strike after which he proceeded to hit two fours in a row. 

Now I am all for being very competitive on the field, I don't even have a problem with sledging the way most people do, but running that extra run is something that is not done. I can only assume that in the heat of the battle the two batsmen were not thinking. Rajasthan won the match and so it doesn't matter. However, if that extra run made a difference in the scheme of things, it would have been interesting to see the reaction of the Royals.