The ring of new political ties

It was one telephone call ahead of International Women’s Day. But the two women at each end of the line are so unique that the call dominated political chatter on Friday.

A day after she snapped political ties with the Left parties and was praised for it, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa called her Bengal counterpart, Mamata Banerjee, who had said in a television interview on Thursday that she would be amenable to supporting a non-Congress, non-Bharatiya Janata Party leader like Jayalalithaa as Prime Minister.

“During the phone call this morning, Jayalalithaa expressed her gratitude for Mamata’s kind words. She also wished the TMC success in the Lok Sabha (polls), saying she would be happy to work with TMC in future,” a source in Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress said in Kolkata.

The call lasted no more than a few minutes and there was no concrete discussion about forming a federal front ahead of the general elections. However, with the two parties having a significant presence in a total of nearly 85 seats, it was more than a courtesy. For Mamata Banerjee, Jayalalithaa’s defection means a satisfying death blow to the Left-led ‘third front’ idea, where the only remaining leaders of consequence and stature are Nitish Kumar and Mulayam Singh Yadav.

What remains to be seen is whether Bahujan Samaj Party leader Mayawati joins this front. As the option of the Left-led front is closed to her because her Uttar Pradesh rival, Mulayam Singh, has already occupied that space, it politically costs her nothing to jump on this bandwagon. But as all three women are strong personalities, how the alliance will work out remains to be seen. But a clear beginning has been made.

The Congress party made no comment about the new entente on the horizon. But in a riposte to Jayalalithaa, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) did announce that a pre-poll alliance had been concluded with the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) in 14 Lok Sabha seats of Tamil Nadu and talks were on with the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), too. As both these parties had earlier opted to go into the polls on their own, and are significant entities in pockets of Tamil Nadu, the alliance will mean the BJP will get entry into a state where it has little or no political capital.

Their piggyback entry is unlikely to enthuse Jayalalithaa. For the DMDK, the alliance with the BJP represents hope about its very existence. The DMDK has been growing in strength since it was formed in September 2005. It contested on its own, both in the 2006 assembly and 2009 Lok Sabha elections. It got 8.38 per cent of the votes in the 2006 assembly elections and 10.08 per cent of the votes in the Lok Sabha elections. It secured a little more than 20,000 votes in each of 27 assembly segments; more than 15,000 votes in 75 segments; more than 10,000 votes in 169 segments; and more than 5,000 votes in 228 segments in the last parliamentary polls. Its leader, Vijayakanth, is popularly known as Karuppu (dark) MGR. Exactly what he stands for ideologically is unclear but he has a following, which suits the BJP.

The PMK was part of an alliance stitched by Jayalalithaa until she turfed it out. Rather than contest the elections alone, the party led by P Ramadoss and his son, Anbumani, has opted to tie up with the BJP, though the latter concedes it brings next to nothing to the PMK table.

Meanwhile, Communist Party of India (CPI) leader D Raja told reporters in Delhi on Friday that the Left parties will decide in two or three days whether they should accept the DMK’s invitation to join hands for the election. Both parties, the CPI and Communist Party of India-Marxist issued a joint statement on Thursday to end their short-lived alliance with the AIADMK, and are expected to go on their own in the election. Hours after the announcement, DMK supremo M Karunanidhi  asked the two Communist parties to join his party-led alliance.