Column

While the BJP is devoting an astonishingly large amount of time and energy on ripping apart Pratibha Patil’s reputation, the Congress is quietly chipping away at the political front the BJP leads. The Shiv Sena has already broken ranks with the NDA.

Is Trinamul Congress next? On Mamata Banerjee’s last visit to the Capital, the enfant terrible from Bengal was overwhelmed with unexpected solicitous attention from Manmohan Singh. Every now and then, the PM allows us a glimpse of the politician hidden behind his scholarly demeanour.

His meeting with Mamata was one such occasion. He had lined up officers from his PMO and other ministries to sit in on the discussions and they were told to listen carefully and take notes.

As an added gesture, usually extended to chief ministers and foreign dignitaries, the Press Information Bureau photographer was present and after the meeting, a photograph was circulated.

But what really tickled Mamata was the way the PM clucked and nodded sympathetically through her rant against CPM ‘terror’ in Singur and Nandigram. He shared her anguish, he told her.

The PM must have been pretty convincing because Mamata came away feeling quite satisfied, although she received no assurances about her demands. That was a potential minefield and the PM trod carefully, lest his Left partners see red.

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The open wooing of Mamata by the Congress has rattled the BJP, which is fast losing hope of keeping its flock united for the upcoming presidential poll.

The mercurial Trinamul leader is keeping the saffron party on tenterhooks with her cat-and-mouse games. In the three days she spent in Delhi last week, she refused to meet any BJP leader.

Bhairon Singh Shekhawat’s chief campaign manager Sushma Swaraj tried for an appointment and was curtly told that Didi was busy with her Singur protests at Jantar Mantar. When the pressure from the BJP started getting unbearable, she advanced her Kerala trip and flew out a day earlier.

On the other hand, she graciously received representatives of the Third Front at her Singur demonstration. Delhi unit leaders of Mulayam Singh’s SP and Deve Gowda’s JD (S) joined her protest as special guests. Mamata seems to be keeping the Third Front option open and there’s speculation that her party may abstain in the presidential election, like the non-UPA, non-NDA parties.

The Congress would be quite satisfied if the Trinamul Congress stays neutral. One more BJP ally flies from the NDA nest.The presidential poll was supposed to throw up alignments for the 2009 Lok Sabha battle. It looks like the process has started.

If initial indications prove correct, the BJP may find that it’s moving inexorably towards the ‘majestic isolation’ of the early nineties once again.
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TAILPIECE

Women journalists invited for tea to the PM’s residence last week were surprised by some of Manmohan Singh’s responses. For instance, he said he didn’t know that the American nuclear warship, USS Nimitz, was going to dock at Chennai, nor was he aware that the EC had announced dates for the vice president’s election.

And the next President of India will be a south Indian, he declared, with supreme indifference to the fact that both contestants are from the west! It looks like the PM has been struck by the same memory lapse syndrome that made former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee forget the name of his foreign minister at a function at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Email: a_jerath@dnaindia.net