Running a coalition government is by no means an easy task. Far from it, it becomes all the more cumbersome if no constituent in a multi-party regime has a majority of its own in Parliament or state legislatures.
As many seasoned leaders, right from Charan Singh and Chandrashekhar to I K Gujaral, H D Deve Gowda and Atal Bihari Vajpayee, have realised in the past, political acumen and experience count for nothing if any coalition consists of power-hungry allies with vaulting ambitions and inflated egos.