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With politics fast becoming a family business, a ginger group has sprung up in Parliament, formed mainly of power sons and daughters. These scions of political dynasties cut through party barriers to move almost in a pack.

They lunch together frequently, swap notes on “everything from babies to politics”, as one power son put it, and generally look out for each other.

Interestingly, Sharad Pawar’s daughter, Supriya Sule, is fast emerging as the pivot of this group. She’s clearly a chip off the old block, making friends and influencing people in parties across the political spectrum.

Whether it’s Jaswant Singh’s son Manvendra Singh of the BJP, or Rajesh Pilot’s son Sachin Pilot of the Congress, Sule keeps in touch.

Now she’s taken the newest entrant to the ‘club’, M Karunanidhi’s daughter, M Kanimozhi, under her wing. The other day, she was seen introducing Kani (as new DMK MP likes to be called) to journos and the like.

Interestingly, Sule and Kanimozhi have something in common — a Singapore connection. Both lived in this tiny ASEAN nation for some years. However, they only met here in India and are now learning on the job together to claim their political legacy.

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The dynamics of a power parent-child duo are interesting to watch. Sule and Pawar, for instance, are often seen together in Parliament. Pawar plays fond father and observes his daughter keeping up the family tradition of touching base with a variety of fellow politicians, no matter what their political hue may be.

It’s an important component of today’s coalition politics. Occasionally, Sonia and Rahul Gandhi drop in together, like they did last week.

Sonia too is quite clearly the fond mother and she watched benignly as Rahul quizzed journos on the nuclear deal and fended off questions about joining the party organization.

“Ask the boss,” he quipped, pointing at his mother who munched steadfastly on her dosa and evaded the issue. The Deoras, Murli and Milind, are another power duo who put in a joint appearance now and then.

So do the Abdullahs, Farooq and Omar, although the latter is now busy preparing for next year’s assembly polls in J&K. One power daughter who rarely mixes with the rest of the political blue-bloods is Mehbooba Mufti.

This serious-faced daughter of former J&K chief minister Mufti Syed prefers to stay aloof from the general chitter-chatter around her.

Mulayam Singh’s son Akhilesh too sticks to his own party MPs. The march of power sons and daughters into the hallowed portals of Parliament is now a steady stream. The generational shift is finally happening, even in politics.

TAILPIECE
It was one of those days in politics when the impossible suddenly becomes possible. First, LK Advani stunned all by making contact with the CPI(M).

He phoned CPI(M) parliamentary party leader Basudeb Acharya who hastily passed him on to Prakash Karat. The next bombshell was the news that Brinda Karat had met Sushma Swaraj.

Was the moon made of cheese? Of course, nothing came of this unexpected contact between the Left and the BJP except to shake the Congress into realising that the government was on the brink of a serious crisis. A surprise-filled day wound up with another shocker.

Advani and Sonia Gandhi were seen chatting, albeit briefly, in Parliament’s Central Hall. The last time the two came face-to-face, they had an angry exchange.

That was four years ago. This time, they shared a lament, over the UNPA’s sloganeering during the PM’s statement on the nuclear deal.

Email: a_jerath@dnaindia.net