LOKSATTA LOOKINT @ BJP

Lok Satta Party today ruled out an understanding with Congress and named BJP as a potential partner saying it was ready to consider "strategic alliance and tactical adjustments" with other parties without compromising on its core values. "Lok Satta's own experience in Andhra Pradesh since its inception in 2006 and national imperatives call for such a strategy at the present juncture," said N Jayaprakash Narayan, party president he told his party members in an open letter. He said while public esteem for the Loksatta was very high in Andhra Pradesh, the perception that the party might not be in a winning position was preventing support into votes; and votes from converting into seats. "This is the primary reason for Loksatta's lack of electoral success." Citing example of the relative performance of the MIM and the Loksatta in Hyderabad city in the 2009 elections, he said while the total number of votes polled for MIM was roughly the same as that of Loksatta in the city, its votes translated into seven Assembly seats but the Loksatta managed to win only in one constituency. Narayan, a bureaucrat-turned-politician, is the sole leader of the party who has been elected to either assembly or parliament. Against such a backdrop, he wrote that "it was excruciatingly difficult to translate in the short-term our support base into a legislative mandate. A people plagued by the fear of wasted vote and potential leaders immobilized by the perception of winnability self-fulfil their prophecy." Narayan recalled that the Lok Satta extended a hand to AAP as its first choice but it, "being wedded to a monopolistic regime, spurned it." Against such a backdrop, the Loksatta has to make a choice between the Congress and the BJP, the two middle-of-the-road parties based on four yardsticks --  pursuit of dynastic politics, dependence on money power, belief  in freebie culture and promotion of sectarianism -- he said. "While the Congress flunks miserably on all measures, the BJP passes muster on the first and third measure and to a lesser degree on the second," he added.