State poll results: All quiet on the 'secular' front?

Bihar Chief Minister

has made a strange remark. He said if there is another re-election in Delhi, the BJP would be wiped out. He made the statement to assert that there is no BJP wave as such and it was just a blower that the party did well. He said there was no Modi wave but just an anti-

wave.

Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, on the other hand, dissolved the party's units in Delhi and Madhya Pradesh after the party fared pathetically in the recently concluded state polls.

The CPI(M) has lost all three seats that it had won in Rajasthan in 2008 and its plan to join hands with the secular Congress to stop the communal BJP (more precisely, Narendra Modi) is in doldrums.

Nitish, Mulayam and Left Front will feel terribly upset with the recent verdict

So what is now in store for the 'secular' forces? Will Third Front still be a reality after Sunday's results?
All the three sides, namely, the JD(U), SP and the Left, who assembled in New Delhi recently to make a grand announcement about a secular third front will find it immensely difficult now to stop the saffron force from surging ahead.

After the BJP winning 3-0 in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh and the Congress sinking without a trace, the three above mentioned sides will be in a serious danger of being isolated in the national politics and give parties like the Trinamool Congress to feel a bit relieved and reassess its strategy.

For Nitish Kumar, Mulayam Singh and the Left, the next Lok Sabha polls are very very crucial. For Nitish Kumar, ever since he left the BJP over the question of a rising Modi, his state and administration have witnessed a rough phase. Questions have been raised over his governance over terror attacks and he has been trying to turn the gun towards the 'communal' forces. There is a desperate attempt on his part to somehow gather allies and give a shot at the top post, which would have been difficult if he remained in the NDA.

For Mulayam Singh, the Muzaffarnagar riots are still afresh and he, too, is banking on some political backing to give a shot at the PM's post for this is high time for the 70-something leader. He always has a love and hate relation with the Congress, the former being the predominant condition before the national polls. But after the humiliation in four states, Mulayam will be deeply worried over the prospects of becoming the prime minister of India.

Finally, the Left Front. They are in a deep trouble and with Mamata Banerjee repeatedly decimating them in West Bengal, which was once their bastion, the leftists have been badly cornered. The Left always needs some back-up support to succeed and the Congress has been their most reliable ally. With the Congress badly defeated in the polls, the Left will feel upset, not because the 'communal' forces will run away, but because its political ambition will be further crippled.