How Left, DMK drove Cong up the wall

UPA's Raisina Hill climb

The Congress may have managed to get one of its own, Rajasthan Governor Pratibha Patil, nominated as the UPA's presidential candidate, but in the process got Home Minister Shivraj Patil and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee humiliated.

To add insult to injury, smaller partners in the coalition, the Left parties and the DMK, appeared to be in the driver's seat. By letting the two force its hand, the Congress lost the power to choose, without gaining anything politically.

Patil was dubbed "communal" by the Left parties before they rejected him, while Mukherjee, supported by the Left, had to swear in public his loyalty to party President Sonia Gandhi.

The egg on the Congress' face evoked no sympathy since even the party leaders confessed that the leadership mismanaged. "We should have learnt from the way Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was nominated, without consulting any party and without providing any alternative name," said a senior party leader.

"The process was wrong. In the first round it was agreed that a Congress candidate would be the UPA's choice and names of Pranab Mukherjee, Sushil Kumar Shinde and Karan Singh came up," said the leader. "When the Left showed preference for Mukherjee, Patil's name was put forward all of a sudden. This irked the Left," said a party source.

"The politics of the coterie around Gandhi took over and the focus shifted from how to get Patil elected to undercutting Mukherjee," said the source. The result was that Mukherjee, given the task of getting a consensus, was humiliated into publicly stating that he was never a candidate.

Seeing this, the Left decided it need not pull any punches and made it clear that Patil was "communal" and unacceptable. "What surprises me is that Patil was not considered 'communal' enough to be home minister," said the senior leader.

The Left was joined by the DMK, which wasted no time in taking over as mediator, running away with the selection process.

"The Left leaders said that they wanted a candidate who was political, had legal skills and was able to understand the roles of the judiciary, executive and legislature. They felt Patil was not the man for the job. How is it that they think Pratibha Patil will be up to it?" asked the senior leader.