Column

Meanwhile in Delhi

Many in the CPM don't quite know what to make of general secretary Prakash Karat's recent political moves. I mean, you can't get a more die-hard Marxist than Karat who has always put ideology above realpolitik. Yet, ever since the acrimonious divorce from the Congress, Karat has abandoned Marx for opportunism in a single-minded determination to tie up electoral fronts with any and every party that can help him keep his former friends (and of course the BJP) out of the next government in New Delhi.

First he pursued Mayawati. Now he's tied up an arrangement of sorts with the Iron Lady of Poes Garden, Jayalalithaa, abandoning his usual reticence to woo her with the gigantic bouquet of flowers that is mandatory luggage for every visitor to her residence.

Karat probably knows what he's doing but CPM governments are feeling the pinch of his new dalliances. West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, for instance, has suddenly found that he's run into a DMK roadblock for various shipping and port related projects. The union minister concerned, A Baalu of the DMK, has shown Bhattacharjee the red flag on at least four prized projects that were supposed to put Bengal back on the map as a major sea trading hub. Baalu's reasoning is rooted in Tamil politics. Any friend of the AIADMK is an enemy of the DMK. But Bhattacharjee is not amused. He's complained once already to prime minister Manmohan Singh about Baalu's politics of vengeance and is likely to raise a stink again when they meet at the chief ministers' conference scheduled for the first week of January. However much Singh may want to help Bhattacharjee out, he can't say boo to the DMK, which has more or less got its way with every government it has supported, NDA or UPA.

Karat's comrades have reason to look askance at the tie-up with the AIADMK. The two parties have no common ideological ground. Any electoral adjustment can at best be an opportunistic arrangement to squeeze the Congress-DMK front out of the arena.

AIADMK leaders say so openly. And according to them, Jayalalithaa has made it clear to Karat that their understanding lasts till the elections only. After that, each is free to go their separate ways. It's a cold blooded mathematical calculation. Karat hopes that the CPM can retain its four Lok Sabha seats with the AIADMK's help and Jayalalithaa is eyeing the Left's pockets of support in Tamil Nadu to bolster her numbers. Bully to the voter, if he or she is naïve enough to believe that a new political front is budding there.

Still, with Jayalalithaa in his bag, Karat has tied up his southern alliances. In Karnataka, the CPI(M) and Deve Gowda's JD(S) will fight together. In Andhra Pradesh, the Left and Chandrababu Naidu's TDP are on the same side and they're waiting for the TRS to join. But his hoped-for partner in the north, Mayawati, has Karat totally foxed. After supping with him at the time of the trust vote and boosting her national presence, the Dalit tsarina has been avoiding further interaction with Karat. He hasn't given up hope to hammer out an arrangement with the BSP, at least for Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana.

It's a joke that could become reality — it's being said in political circles that the next government depends on Karat and his two women!

TAILPIECE
T he post-poll demoralisation in the BJP has taken its toll of LK Advani's holiday plans. The man known for hunting out unusual destinations to ring in the New Year has decided to stay put in Delhi and spend the special night like any other day. It's a far cry from Rishikesh, where he went last year, or the Andaman Islands, where he went some years ago just to see the sun as it first rises over India every morning. This year, Advani plans to spend the last day of the year in strategy sessions with his aides to prepare for the big battle ahead, the Lok Sabha elections 2009.