Mamata’s ‘experiment’ is still only a formula; the test tubes lying helter-skelter on the table; lab coats missing because people supposed to don them don’t want to test Mamata’s formula to disappear Narendra Modi. The Congress Thursday night took to a different route, announcing 11 Uttar Pradesh candidates; nine more than the two offered to it by Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav. Tens more Congress candidates for the 80 UP seats are likely to be named in the days to come. And, sorry Mamata Didi, you don’t stand a scarecrow’s chance in the dusty UP plains.

To thwart Modi a second chance at the country’s helm is an obsession with Mamata Benerjee. For a variety of reasons, the Trinamool Congress has been losing the perception battle in West Bengal. And that mostly because of the BJP. So much so, Mamata herself chose to not to apply her formula to test at ‘home’; come to understandings with the Congress and the Left parties. West Bengal constituencies will not see direct fights between single opposition and BJP candidates.

In part, because supreme leaders of the gathbandan/mahagathbandan parties, all of them harbour prime ministerial ambitions. Mayawati, Mamata and Rahul Gandhi, each one of the trio want to replace Modi in the PM’s residence and lord over the PMO, run the country. While this unbridled ambition displays supreme belief that come what may Modi will be “out” mid-2019, it also reflects on the suspicion plaguing the different alliance leaders. The trust deficit is a thick slab of antipathy.

That being said, the leaders cannot be blamed for prime ministerial ambitions in a now or never situation. The Congress is fighting for the survival of the so-called dynasty and Modi, if he gets another five years, is a clear and future threat. It’s been 15 long years since a Gandhi became Prime Minister and that’s serious climate change, not seasonal variation. Prolonging the ‘Gandhi Winter’ could tantamount to Ice Age. Not just to the Gandhi family, but to the Congress.

As for Mamata, she appears to have had enough of being Chief Minister. And West Bengal’s political climate is no longer like the decades-long Jyoti Basu summer! The weathercock appears to be going awry by the day and nobody knows wither political weather, whether? The dream for a Bengali Prime Minister has been there for a long time and the Trinamool might get the Bengali vote in overwhelming numbers if that dream lasts, does not die.

The fixation to become Prime Minister is not a disease; definitely not a mental block or derangement syndrome. It’s a die most politicians want to cast. Rank outsiders could fit the cast because nobody else could in coalition circumstances. HD Devegowda and IK Gujral; VP Singh and Chandrashekhar. Manmohan Singh was chosen for a fine lack of bristles. And Mayawati may never make it to the head of the high table because she brings with her the impression she could be blunt with the fork and knife.

Modi, of course, has no rivals in the BJP. The number of times Nitin Gadkari has had to clarify he’s not in the reckoning is so embarrassing, he might not take the chair if it fell on his head! The long and short of it is, ‘Modi Vs. All’ also translates to ‘Modi Vs. Rahul Vs. Mamata Vs. Mayawati.’ There is no chemistry in the opposition. It is too late for a dissection. The mechanics have failed. Left only is Mathematics, permutations and combinations. If that too fails, a throw of the dice! But before that, Modi has to go up in smoke. (IPA Service)