Column

The summer has heralded a season of discontent in both our national parties. For the BJP, it started with Gopinath Munde’s very public revolt in Maharashtra.

Barely had that subsided when a storm erupted in Karnataka where two stubborn personalities with overweening ambitions to become chief minister, BS Yediurappa and HN Ananthkumar, came to blows over ticket distribution. Both are hot tempered and their latest argument ended with Yediurappa throwing a file at Ananthkumar’s face and then hitting him with a water bottle.

Fortunately, the injuries were not big enough to cause public embarrassment but Rajnath Singh and LK Advani had a harrowing time restoring peace so that the party can put up a united face in next month’s crucial assembly polls.

Discontent is simmering in other states as well but with the top leadership immersed in the Karnataka campaign, it has little time to spare for troubles elsewhere.

While the BJP was busy putting out bushfires in Maharashtra and Karnataka, the Congress was preoccupied with Punjab and not surprisingly, Karnataka as well. The crisis of discipline in the Punjab Congress has spilled out on the streets where supporters of the two warring leaders, Rajinder Kaur Bhattal and Amrinder Singh, were fighting pitched battles at one point.

With the Akalis watching gleefully from the sidelines, Bhattal and Singh accused each other of maintaining links with Khalistan terrorists and questioned the other’s nationalism.

Singh was defiant enough to refuse to answer anxious phone calls from 10 Janpath’s chief aide, Ahmed Patel. And then, when he finally came on the line, Singh declined to come to Delhi as ordered. Ultimately, he did make the journey to the Capital as did Bhattal and her supporters.

Last week, Parliament was full of disgruntled Congress leaders from Punjab, all lobbying to be heard. Guess who was called in to administer the disciplinary dose? Pranab Mukherjee, who has become the Congress Man for All Seasons, from nuclear deal to Punjab crisis.

He did two days of tough talking but barely had that headache subsided when the party’s tallest Muslim leader from Karnataka, Jaffer Sharief, raised the banner of revolt. He threatened to quit because his grandson was denied a ticket. He has been pacified for the moment.

The near revolts in both the BJP and the Congress suggest a growing restlessness in the rank and file of the two national parties. The political wind blowing through the country seems to favour regional players who can only rise at the cost of the BJP and the Congress.

Options are emerging rapidly for disgruntled elements in both the national parties, making it increasingly difficult for them to hold on to leaders with a following of their own, big or small. The countdown to the general elections could see a tsunami sweep through political circles as the traditional party fabric fragments into micro units.

TAILPIECE
The clout of the Gandhis was evident when irrepressible Mamata Banerjee bowed to a request from the First Family of Indian politics to provide safe passage for Rahul and Priyanka through bandh-hit Kolkata the day after the IPL match last week.

She called off her bandh three hours earlier than scheduled so that they could reach the airport to take the evening flight back to Delhi. Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi to the rescue. He called up former chela, now Banerjee’s righthand man, Saugatha Roy, to persuade his leader to do the needful.

Email: a_jerath@dnaindia.net