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UNPA After the withdrawal of support by the Left parties to the UPA led government United National Progressive Alliance had emerged as the third most powerful political option as compared to the NDA and UPA. Though there was no ideological understanding between its various member parties but they had projected BSP supremo Mayawati as their Prime Ministerial candidate for the forthcoming elections for the Lok Sabha.

Trust Vote But PM Manmohan Singh somehow had succeeded in securing the trust votes and the UPA government survived and it is being expected that it will complete its full term of five years. Before the trust motion it was being expected that PM Manmohan Singh will not succeed in mustering the required support for the survival of the government and election are very near. In the meantime all the UNPA parties, with the help of Left and BSP had formed a third front.

Third Option It was being considered UNPA will emerge as the strongest alliance after the elections. But everything has changed after the special session of the parliament. Public emotions are not in favor of UPA and it is evident that there are very little chances that it will return to power. On the other hand NDA’s Prime Ministerial candidate L.K. Advani is not a leader of the stature of A.V Vajpayee. In such circumstance UNPA was being seen as the political alternative that can offer someone as an acceptable Prime Ministerial candidate in the forthcoming elections.

But cracks have started to appear in the UNPA. As some of its member political parties has declined to accept Mayawati as their Prime Ministerial candidate. Some of the parties has said that they will present a third front in front of the people as an alternative to the NDA and UPA in the forthcoming elections but it will be based on common minimum program instead of projecting an individual as Prime Ministerial candidate.

Death Sixty one years old former Indian cricket player Ashok Mankad died on Friday morning in the economic capital of India, Mumbai. He was one of the three sons of Indian cricket legend Mulvantrai Himatial ‘Vinoo’ Mankad. During his career as an International Cricket Player he played twenty-two test matches and a one-day. He was a right hand batsman who during his earlier days of the game represented  various cricket teams that includes Bombay, West Zone cricket team, and Bombay University. His first class cricket career even before he was of seventeen.

Test Career Though his performance at domestic levels was average he was selected by the selection committee under Vijay Marchant for the tests against New Zealand in 1969-70. He could not score enough runs and was dropped for the third match. After some time he was selected to play against Australia. He gave his career best performance of 97 runs against Australia that helped India to level the series. Though he was a leading run scored at the Ranji Trophy level  he could not match his best at the International level. Though he played some good innings as an opener with Sunil Gavaskar but was dropped from the national team after he flopped in the next series against England as an opener in 1971.

Decline In the last fifteen test matches he could not perform well and could score only one half century. He was once again selected for the team in 1977-78 for the Australian tour where he scored 508 runs at the average of more than fifty. By that time Indian had found Chetan Chauhan as a new opening partner of Sunil Gavaskar so Mankad was never selected again for the national team. He also played one One-Day during his career. During his International career as an Indian cricket player he scored 991 runs in tests.

Domestic Level At Ranji Trophy level his performance was exceptional. He scored 6619 runs in the Ranji Trophy that includes 22 centuries that is equal to Vijy Hazare’s record of centuries. The weak Mumbai team won the Ranji Trophy twice during his playing days. After his retirement he remained associated with cricket as coach and cricket manager for some time.  He couched many Ranji Trophy teams also. He contribution to the Indian Cricket can not be ignored.