Bihar leaders are on the right track. Mr. Laloo Yadav and Mr. Nitish Kumar cobbled an alliance to better the BJP in ten assembly bye-elections. This offers proof that this writer’s prescription for creating a credible opposition suggested immediately after the NDA government assumed office had merit. It was proposed that regional parties unite nationwide with a federal party constitution and create a viable national alternative. But there is a long way to go. If regional parties can stay the course they have more than even chance to wrest power in the next general election. This is what they must do.

First, they must junk the Congress but welcome all Congress leaders. Media attributed the by-poll victory to Congress and allies. The victory was of regional parties and Congress. Congress is history. The Congress could have reinvented itself as the Indian Federal Congress. It missed the bus. If competent Congress leaders do not join the emerging federal party they may be ignored.

Secondly a meeting of all regional parties should be convened. Let that be done by a leader publicly committed to abjuring any ministerial post in the centre or the state but confining himself to creating the new alternative. That would give him moral authority to influence other leaders. He would fulfill a historic task.

Thirdly, the meeting of regional leaders must approve the constitution of a federal party. A draft constitution can be made available in a day. In the first instance merger may be only at the parliamentary level. Regional parties may retain their respective identities until satisfied to voluntarily merge their identities fully with the new party.

Fourthly all MPs of the regional parties who most likely will number around a hundred must approach the Speaker for recognition. They must elect a leader who would be Leader of Opposition in Parliament. They should form a shadow cabinet and closely monitor the government and offer alternative ideas and constructive criticism on all issues. Critics dismiss regional leaders as corrupt. Past corruption cannot be undone. But reform is always possible. We have to function with the politicians available. Critics should note that Congress and BJP leaders were responsible for Coalgate.

Fifthly, the new party must endorse a nationwide movement in each state of the Union through organizations of the regional party allies. The movement should focus on two major blunders of the founding fathers of the freedom struggle without rectifying which this nation will never achieve good governance and stability. The spirit of the Partition must be undone. The distorted interpretation of our explicitly written Constitution must end. Propagating the truth about these two blunders will bury the Congress legacy forever as Mahatma Gandhi had willed.

If regional leaders want to be serious power players they must follow a strategy above parochial interests. If they do it they can realistically aspire for power in the centre after the next general election. Are they up to it?