WEAKER players often set the pace in longer races. But rarely do the stronger players follow them to the very end. From the moment the Congress chose one of its own, Pranab Mukherjee, as its candidate for the presidential election, the Bharatiya Janata Party was under pressure to enter the race…. But far from seizing the initiative, and dictating the selection of a rival candidate, the main opposition party seemed content to let smaller parties pick the challenger. The BJP can be forgiven for wanting to take advantage of the fissures within the UPA on the nomination of Mr Mukherjee, and for tailing Mamata Banerjee in trying to prop up former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam as a candidate. However, in the process, the party opened up cracks within its own National Democratic Alliance…. Clearly, the BJP was in no position to win new friends without losing old ones. Dropping all pretence of a party destined to lead, it looked every bit a party doomed meekly to follow others.

…Today, the principal opposition party has become a tail of the regional parties it needs to mobilise if it is to stand a chance of coming to power in 2014. Of course, the BJP’s loss is Mr Sangma’s gain. He still has no chance of winning, but at least he will have the satisfaction of putting up a reasonable fight.—(June 22)