Sir — This refers to the news report, “‘East India Company’ in the makingIJ” (June 13). The combined lok Sabha tally of the two main parties, the Congress and the BJP, is not likely to fall below the majority mark of 272.
Even if that happens, parties like the SP, the BSP, or the JD(U) and the RJD, or the Trinamool Congress, the left, the DMK and AIADMK, with their conflicting interests and regional constraints, will find it difficult to find common ground and come together on the same platform. No Government can be formed without the support of the Congress or the BJP.
In 1996-98, the Congress-supported United Front Government saw two Prime Ministers in its short span of less than two years and mid-term poll followed. In contrast, coalition Governments of the NDA led by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and, thereafter, the UPA regime, led by Manmohan Singh survived their full terms. A non-Congress, non-BJP Federal Front forming a Government at the Centre is only a pipe dream.