The boost which the OBCs received with the coming to power of Lalu Prasad in Bihar and Mulayam Singh in U.P. has lost its momentum. The retreat began with the rupture in the OBC ranks with the Kurmis breaking away under Nitish Kumar, spelling Lalu Prasad's doom. The former chief minister also contributed to his own political problems by neglecting development, thereby making Bihar a byword for a failed state. He thought that fostering the self-respect of the OBC, and especially the Yadavs, was enough to keep him in power.

In UP, Mulayam Singh dug his own political grave by, first, breaking his post-Babri masjid demolition ties with Mayawati, forcing her to move over to the BJP camp, and, secondly, by his patronage of unsavoury elements, which made his tenure earn the name of “goonda raj”. Besides, Mulayam never quite had the same control over U.P, as Lalu did over Bihar, which is why the former had an uneasy alliance with the Congress when he was in power.

Even today, the Samajwadi Party's relationship with the Congress is not very cordial although the two parties extended their alliance from the state to the centre last year following Mayawati's overwhelming victory in the assembly elections. The BSP's success left the SP with no alternative but to leave the company of the Left, which has little influence in UP, and join hands with the Congress.

On its part, the Congress was grateful because the SP enabled it to withstand the Left's withdrawal of support from the Manmohan Singh government on the nuclear deal. Subsequently, the Congress also demonstrated in the parliamentary polls that it was recovering some of the lost ground in U.P. However, the SP does not seem to have been able to accept its diminishing status in U.P.

Its grouse against the Congress, as described by Amar Singh, the SP's general secretary, is that it practises the “use and throw” where his party is concerned. It is this grievance which probably made the SP indicate at the time of its three-day national conference in Agra that it may snap its links with the Congress. But there are several reasons why it has since reversed its position.

First was the realisation that it does not have the strength to take on both the BSP and the Congress in U.P. Although the SP won more seats (23) in the parliamentary polls than any other party, its setback in the earlier assembly election evidently still weighs on its mind. This feeling of despondency must have been strengthened by its failure in the recent by-elections, where it could not win even one of the four seats.

Three of these went to the BSP, including Malihabad and Bidhuna which the SP regarded as its strongholds, and the fourth to the Rashtriya Lok Dal. The SP cannot be too sure whether hobnobbing with Kalyan Singh has eroded its influence among the Muslims. Having lost Raj Babbar to the Congress and Azam Khan following the latter's spat with Amar Singh, the SP is evidently a much weakened entity with probably the Yadavs providing its only reliable base of support.

That it is desperately trying to recover the lost ground was clear from its recent proposals to ban English and computers in the hope that this great leap backwards would convince the downtrodden that the party's heart was with them. But the SP does not seem to realise that even the poor want their children to learn English as well as the use of computers in order to move ahead in life.

The problem with the self-appointed champions of the OBCs like Lalu Prasad and Mulayam Singh is that they presumed that with the provision of employment for these communities under the Mandal plan, they were assured of their lifelong support. But they did not realise that jobs alone and that, too, mainly for the creamy layer were not enough. There was need for development and a forward-looking attitude which gradually played down the caste factor, as even Mayawati has done to some extent with her sarvajan hitae (welfare for everyone) slogan.

The rise of these caste-based parties was the result of the Congress's decline as it lost its focus because of corruption (vide the Bofors case) and cynicism as exemplified by the overturning of the Shah Bano judgment in the hope of pleasing the Muslim fundamentalists. But the blinkered kupmanduk (frog in the well) attitude of the regional outfits prevented them from either stabilising their bases or widening their appeal.

As a result, they are now banking on national parties like the Congress to bail them out. Both the SP and the RJD are with the Congress at present as the BSP was with the BJP some time ago. (IPA Service)