United Progressive Alliance (
UPA)
is a
ruling coalition of
political parties heading the
government of India. The
coalition is led by the
Indian
National Congress (INC), which is currently the single largest
political party in the
Lok Sabha (the
lower house of the
parliament of
India). The
Prime Minister
of India,
Manmohan Singh, and the
Council of
Ministers are drawn from members of the UPA. INC's President,
Sonia Gandhi, serves as the Chairperson
of the UPA.
History
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 has won only 169 MPs
in the 543 member
14th Lok Sabha, as
opposed the UPA tally of 222 seats.
The
Left Front with 59 MPs (excluding the
speaker), the
Samajwadi Party with
39 MPs and the
Bahujan Samaj
Party with 19 MPs were other significant blocks that opted to
support UPA at various phases of its rule. The UPA did not enjoy a
simple majority on its own in the parliament, rather it has relied
on the external support 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, the NDA, the Congress
government of
Narasimha Rao, and
earlier governmnets of
V P Singh and
Chandrashekhar.
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 government'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 Front. 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.
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.
In the Indian General Election in 2009, the UPA won a convincing
262 seats with INC alone winning 206 seats. The UPA is now all set
to form a stable majority government beating an anti-incumbency
factor. All inclusive and populist policies along with a younger
leadership has been credited for this.
Common Minimum Programme
The "Common Minimum Programme" is a document outlining the minimum
objectives of the coalition government.
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 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.
Outside support is currently being offered by the
Samajwadi Party (33 MPs), the
Bharatiya Navshakti Party (1 MP),
the
National Conference (2 MPs)
and by the
National Loktantrik
Party (1 MP). In addition, rebel MPs from
Biju Janata Dal, the
Bharatiya Janata Party, the
Janata Dal , the
Telugu Desam Party and the independent
MPs take the tally of UPA supporting MPs to 275.
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.
Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
Marumalarchi
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK), began its drift when it tied
up with the UPA's rival
All India Anna Dravida
Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) during the Tamil Nadu elections, and
on March 16, 2007 officially withdrew support..
Bahujan Samaj Party
On 21 June 2008, the Bahujan Samaj Party, or the BSP, with 17
seats, announced withdrawal of its t.
Left Front
On 8 July
2008, Prakash Karat, the general
secretary of the Communist Party of India
(or the CPI (M)), announced that the Left Front would be
withdrawing support over the decision by the government to go ahead
with the Indo-US nuclear deal,
a Section 123 Agreement with
the United
States
..
People's Democratic Party
On 4
January 2009, Mehbooba Mufti, president of the People's Democratic
Party announced the withdrawal of the PDP from the UPA given
that the Congress had decided to support the Omar Abdullah-led National Conference
Government in Jammu &
Kashmir
after the 2008 state
elections.
Pattali Makkal Katchi
On 26 March 2009,PMK declared that it would join the AIADMK led
front and withdrew from the UPA and the party president declared
that two union ministers of his party will resign shortly.
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 16
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
joined 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. 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."
Cabinet ministers in the government
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
As of 9 May 2009 the UPA has the following
cabinet ministers in the Indian
government:
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.
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.
In early November 2008, months before a new general election, RJD
chief Laloo Prasad Yadav, along with other MP's from Bihar,
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. The opposition BJP termed this "another spell of rhetoric"
on the issue of attacks on north Indians in Mumbai.
Current Members for Lok-Sabha 2009
Supporting Parties for Lok-Sabha 2009
Past General Election Alliances of Congress (before 2004)
2009 General Elections
UPA won the general elections with the Congress winning 206 seats,
61 seats more than the 2004 election tally. The pre-poll coalition
of UPA, which did not include
Lalu
Yadav's RJD,
Ram Vilas Paswan's
LJP and
Mulayam Singh Yadav's
SP, won 262 seats, and needed the support of 10 MPs to get a simple
majority in the Lok Sabha.
Manmohan
Singh continued to be the Prime Minister and in doing so became
only the second Prime Mnister of India after
Jawahar Lal Nehru to return to power after
a full five year term at the office. RJD, SP, BSP, JD (U) and other
smaller parties and independents provide external support to the
government.
Constituents
Before the election, the UPA comprised the following constituent
parties:
See also
References
- Small parties, independents in great
demand.
- Originally the SP had 39 MPs. 6 MPs defied party whip and have been expelled from
the party.
- Lok Sabha members
- Congress pins hopes on Jyoti Basu-India-The Times
of India
- Madhu Koda to be next Jharkhand CM. Retrieved
on March 26, 2007.
- [1]
- Cabinet adopts Common Minimum Programme -
New Kerala.com, May 29, 2004
- India's 'common minimum programme' -
BBC, May 28, 2004
- " Secular govt a priority: Basu." Rediff Election
Bureau 13 May 2004.
- Inching closer to vote, govt safe@272 NDTV
- Abstentions and cross-voting.... Retreieved on
July 25, 2008.
- TRS withdraws support to the UPA. Retrieved on
March 26, 2007.
- Vaiko withdraws support. Retrieved on March 26,
2007.
- [Retrieved on March 26, 2007.
- Mayawati withdraws support to UPA government.
Retrieved on June 21, 2008.
- Left pulls out, will meet President Patil on
Wednesday
- PDP withdraws from UPA, The Indian
Express. January 5, 2009
- http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1199083
- http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/004200811041750.htm
- List
of Council of Ministers. Retrieved on 07 Mar 2009.
-
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/We-have-documentary-proof-of-cash-for-vote-scam-BJP/344093/
-
http://www.financialexpress.com/news/Left-joins-BJP-to-sing-chorus-against-UPA/374896/
- http://www.freewebs.com/furkans/furkanpoliticalwebsite.htm
- NCP-Congress form a seat sharing agreement in Maharashtra
- Though not officially a UPA member, the Trinamool Congress
announced that it would form an alliance with the Congress in the
state of West
Bengal for the 2009 general elections.
- Congress & Trinamool Congress agreed on a seat-sharing
accord in West Bengal almost two weeks after announcing their
intention to fight elections together.
- SP, RJD and LJP form a seat-sharing agreement, but vow to
continue supporting the UPA
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