WikiPortallus: United Progressive Alliance.html

The UPA was formed soon after the 2004 general elections after it became clear that the previous ruling coalition, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) had been defeated. The NDA had gotten only 169 MPs¹ in the 543 member 14th Lok Sabha, as opposed the UPA tally.

The Indian communist parties (Left Front), the Samajwadi Party with 39 (now 33) MPs and the Bahujan Samaj Party with 19 (now 17) MPs were other significant blocks that opted to support UPA at various phases of its 50 month rule.²³ The UPA did not enjoy a simple majority on its own in the parliament, rather it has relied on the external support given by these parties to ensure that it enjoys the confidence of the Indian parliament similar to the formula adopted by the previous minority governments of the United Front and the NDA.

An informal alliance had existed prior to the elections as several of the current constituent parties had developed seat-sharing agreements in many states. However, it was only after the election that the results of negotiations between parties were announced. The UPA's policies were initially guided by a common minimum programme that the alliance hammered out with fruitful consultations with Jyoti Basu and Harkishan Singh Surjeet of the 59 member Left Front⁴. Hence, government policies were generally perceived as center-left, reflecting the centrist policies of the INC and the Left.

During the tenure of Jharkhand CM Madhu Koda, the constituents of the UPA were, by mutual consent, supporting his government.⁵

At present the UPA is no longer supported by the Left parties. It survived a vote of confidence in the parliament on 22 July 2008 and is expected to last at least till its term expires in 2009.

Common Minimum Programme

The "Common Minimum Programme" is a document outlining the minimum objectives of the coalition government.⁶⁷

Initial support

Initially, the United Progressive Alliance was given external support from the Left Front which totaled 59 MPs. Similar external support was also promised by several smaller parties that were not a member of any coalition, including the Samajwadi Party with 39 MPs, the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam with 4 MPs , the Janata Dal (Secular) with 3 MPs, and Bahujan Samaj Party with 19 MPs, who promised to support the government if it faced a vote of confidence. Nevertheless, these parties were not a part of the government. The UPA thus had at least 335 MPs out of 543 supporting it at the time of its formation.

The Left parties, despite ideological differences with the Congress, supported the UPA to ensure a secular government and avoid a BJP-dominated government.⁸

Current constituents

Due to the volatile nature of coalition politics in India, the constituents of the UPA have been wavering. As of July 15, 2008 they were:⁹

Withdrawals

Telangana Rashtra Samithi

The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) was the first party to quit the alliance, first when its ministers quit the Andhra Pradesh government, and finally when an official withdrawal was done at the national level by its president K. Chandrashekar Rao, who resigned his Lok Sabha seat.¹³

Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam

Bahujan Samaj Party

On 21 June 2008, the Bahujan Samaj Party, or the BSP, with 17 seats, announced withdrawal of its support.¹⁶

Left Front

Resignations

DMK

On October 17, 2008 14 DMK MP's, including central ministers T.R. Baalu and A. Raja, handed in their post-dated resignation letters to the head of the party, TN CM M. Karunanidhi in demanding an end to the violence against civilians in Sri Lanka. There were consequently only 2 DMK MP's left in the 14th Lok Sabha. All 4 Rajya Sabha MP's had also submitted post-dated resignation letters, including Karunanidhi's daughter, Kanimozhi had handed in her resignation on October 14, A. A. Jinnah, Tiruchi Siva, and Vasanthi Stanley. All 40 Lok Sabha MP's of Tamil Nadu and the union territory of Puducherry had also threatened to quit the government if it failed to take action on the Sri Lankan issue. Lawyers in Coimbatore joint their tamil brethren in burning an effigy of Union Defence Minister A.K. Antony within the court premises earlier in the day, alleging a conspiracy by bureaucrats of Kerala origin to keep the Tamil minority in Sri Lanka on tenterhooks.¹⁸ Following these actions, the TN CM Karunanidhi said, on November 4, that he was "satisfied" with the measures taken by the UPA government in the center on the Sri Lankan Tamils issue. A statement said: "we have a Centre, which realises the plight of Tamils in Sri Lanka, and the leaders there respect our sentiments," and that they were doing their best to mitigate the sufferings of the Tamils of Lanka. He added that, "We have to raise our demands to increase their action."¹⁹

JD (U)

Five JD(U) MPs resigned from the Lok Sabha on November 7, 2008 in order to step up pressure on the Centre on the controversial issue of attacks on North Indians in the Congress-ruled Maharashtra province. JD(U) Lok Sabha leader, Prabhunath Singh, said "What option did we have when the Constitution is under attack and that the unity and integrity of the country is in peril in the wake of the incidents in Maharashtra?" Four other MP's followed him in tendering their resignations to the Lok Sabha Secretary General P D T Achary. The four included: former cabinet minister George Fernandes, Rajiv Ranjan Singh 'Lallan', Kailash Baitha and Meena Singh.²⁰ The resignations were accepted on November 11.²¹

Cabinet ministers in the government

As of 26 July 2008 the UPA has the following cabinet ministers in the Indian government²²:

Vote of Confidence

The UPA faced it's first confidence vote in the Lok Sabha on 22 July 2008 after the CPI (M) led Left Front withdrew support over India approaching the IAEA for the Indo-US nuclear deal. The vote was so crucial that the UPA and the opposition parties summoned MPs from their sick beds and even from prison cells to take part in the vote, which was eventually won by the Government.²³

Controversies

During the discussion for the vote of confidence, BJP MP's produced cash in the parliament, as viewed on Lok Sabha TV, alleging a bribe by the Samajwadi Party to vote for the government. The BJP claimed to have documentary evidence in a "cash for vote" scam and submitted a report before the parliamentary committee probing the matter. The BJP also wrote a 17-page letter to the Parliamentary committee headed by Congress member V Kishore Chandradeo in this regard. Arun Jaitley said Samajwadi MP Reoti Raman Singh had offered his party's MPs the cash on the night of July 21. He also alleged that SP leader Amar Singh was behind the entire episode. Jaitley said: "The investigating agencies did not do their job. So we inquired into the matter and gathered documentary evidence in the case." He alleged the 'cash for vote' scam reflected the subversion of the Indian Parliament, as well as a section of the media.²⁴

The winter session of parliament in October 2008 came under intense criticism from the Left parties and the BJP to demand a full fledged winter session instead of what was seen as the UPA to having "scuttled the voice of Parliament" by bringing down the sittings to a record low of 30 days in the year. The tensions between the UPA and the opposition parties became evident at an all party meeting convened by Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee when the leader of opposition, LK Advani questioned the status, timing and schedule of the current session of parliament.²⁵

In early November 2008, months before a new general election, RJD chief Laloo Prasad Yadav, along with other Bihari MP's, threatened to resign en masse from the central government as well as with their MLA's in bihar and jharkhand if the central government did not steps to arrest Raj Thackeray under the NSA for the recent actions against north Indian students in Maharashtra, as well as to initiate a CBI inquiry in the killing of a bihari on a Mumbai.^{citation needed} The opposition BJP termed this "another spell of rhetoric" on the issue of attacks on north Indians in Mumbai. They also attacked their ally, the JD(U) for "triggering" a "purposeless competition" with a threat to resign from the Lok Sabha within a week on the said issue. They did, however, add that the north Indians in Maharashtra "should be spared of the politicians and politics." BJP spokesman, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, said: "The statement by Lalu Prasad Yadav is nothing but another spell of rhetoric."²⁶ BJP-ally, the Shiv Sena, also came out criticizing such a move. Dismissed such a threat, party spokesman, Sanjay Raut, said: "It is merely a stunt when the term of the Lok Sabha will be expiring soon." They also criticized the JD (U) CM, a NDA constituent, and showed division within. He mockingly said the JD(U) MPs could have resigned on a variety of issues concerning Bihar, including corruption, law and order and several other matters. He also said: "They could have even resigned over RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav's record as the Railway Minister," while adding that "we do not believe in indulging in any stunts".²⁷ In competition with the RJD, Nitish Kumar-led Janta Dal (United) announced that its five Lok Sabha MPs from Bihar would also resign in protest against the attacks. However, regional ally and LJP chief, Ram Vilas Paswan, said that he would stick to his stand that resigning from the Lok Sabha on the issue of attacks on north Indians in Maharashtra only months before the House tenure runs out is only cosmetic. He issued what was seen as a veiled attack on JD (U) chief, Sharad Yadav, saying "Such actions are like gimmicks. It’s like claiming martyrdom for sacrificing fingers. It has no meaning."²⁸

United Progressive Alliance.html

Contents

History