NEW DELHI: The clear victory for the Congress-led alliance in recent general elections has sidelined an array of regional and left leaning parties, which came to the center stage of Indian politics over the last two decades as national parties lost influence. The elections have also paved the way for the Congress Party to recover its position as India's dominant political force. Days after the Congress Party-led alliance won comfortably in the general elections, Mayawati, the head of a caste-based regional group known as the Bahujan Samaj Party, pledged her party's support to the coalition. Mayawati says she is making the offer to extend a friendly hand to the Congress Party "without any conditions."Hers is among several regional and caste based parties which have volunteered to support the Congress-led alliance, which is returning for its second term in office. This is not what any of these parties had expected to do. Rather they had nurtured ambitions of being wooed by the Congress Party, and driving a hard bargain such as prized seats in the Cabinet in return for their support.Their optimism stemmed from forecasts that the results in this year's election would be even more fractured than it has been in past elections. Since 1991, India has been governed by unwieldy coalition governments, dependent on an array of small parties for their survival.But the 2009 elections reversed the trend. The Congress Party-led alliance confounded all forecasts, and has emerged slightly short of a majority - but strong enough to survive without the support of regional parties.
BEIRUT: Thousands of people converged Saturday on central Beirut to mark the fourth anniversary of the assassination of Lebanese former premier Rafiq Hariri.Waving Lebanese flags and carrying pictures of the slain leader, men, women and children gathered under sunny skies in Martyr's Square where members of the parliamentary majority were to address the crowd. The rally comes as final preparations are underway in The Hague for the launch of the international tribunal set up to bring Hariri's killers to justice. It also comes as the country prepares for legislative elections in June that will pit Western-backed political parties against a Hezbollah-led alliance backed by Syria and Iran.Hariri died in a massive car bombing on February 14, 2005 that also killed 22 others. The assassination was widely blamed on then Lebanese power-broker Syria, which has denied any involvement. The attack on the Beirut seafront was one of the worst acts of political violence to rock Lebanon since t...
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