D Pandian, the Tamil Nadu secretary of the Communist Party of India had the last laugh on Sunday when ‘three wise men’ from the party’s national leadership boarded their flight back to New Delhi.
Secretary of the CPI K Sudhakar Reddy, former secretary AB Bardhan and party national secretary D Raja waited in Chennai for three days to get at least a five-minute meeting with J Jayalalithaa. They had a mission to ensure the smooth sailing of D Raja in the June 27 Rajya Sabha elections from Tamil Nadu. The AIADMK can get four of its candidates elected on its own and will be left with 15 surplus votes. The CPI is eying these surplus votes with which the party can get its candidate elected.
There was no word from either the Poes Garden or the party headquarters other than a ‘may be in New Delhi on Monday’ assurance from a senior AIADMK leader. Jayalalithaa is visiting New Delhi on Monday for discussion with the Planning Commission for the State’s 2013-14 budgetary requirements. Pandian and Raja are in a battle of nerves over the Rajya Sabha seat. The former has the support of the State unit while Raja is being propped up again by Bardhan and company. The chances of Raja getting the support of the AIADMK seemed remote as on Sunday evening.
Raja is completing his six-year tenure as member of the Upper House along with five others from Tamil Nadu in July. The CPI’s assistant secretary till then confined to studio rooms of 24X7 news channels as the party’s representative, shot into prominence in 2004 when the left parties decided to extend support to their life-long class enemies Congress to form the UPA Government at the Centre to keep the “communal” BJP away from the corridors of power. TV screens always featured the shots of Bardhan and Raja entering and coming out of the 10 Janpath Road whenever the UPA meetings were held. The duo also earned the sobriquet laurel and Hardy in political circles because of their slight resemblance to the Hollywood actors.
D Raja got elected to the Rajya Sabha for the first time in 2007 from Tamil Nadu because of the good will of the DMK which had a tie-up with the left as part of the Rainbow Alliance floated by Karunanidhi in 2004. To impress Karunanidhi with whom he is having good rapport, Raja severely criticised Jayalalithaa, who was the then Chief Minister of the State.
The Manmohan Singh Government’s decision to sign the civil nuclear cooperation with the US resulted in the left walking out of the UPA Government though the DMK stayed put. The 2009 lok Sabha elections saw the CPI and CPI(M) pitching their tents in the AIADMK camp. The alliance was continued in the 2011 Assembly election which was won hands down by the AIADMK resulting in the total rout of the DMK.
The sight of Bardhan, Reddy and Raja waiting in anticipation of the call from Poes Garden looked pathetic, according to insiders in the CPI. “This is proof of how Parliamentary dreams and aspirations for power could pollute even the ones with Communist mindset. There was a time when even leaders of the Congress used to wait for an appointment with the CPI leaders,” said a chronicler of Tamil Nadu politics. Interestingly, Jayalalithaa’s recent meetings with leaders of Manithaneya Muslim Katchi and Puthiya Thamizhagam (which had two members each) have set tongues wagging with rumours that Amma may go for all the five seats.
The DMK has only 23 members in the Assembly. Party chief Karunanidhi’s daughter Kanimozhi too is completing her tenure as Rajya Sabha member in July. Karunanidhi, who just celebrated his 90th birthday in style, is worried about how to fill the gap of 11 votes which Kanimozhi needs badly to get re-elected to the Upper House. The five-member Congress group has already made it known that they would support Kanimozhi. Even then the DMK has to mobilise six more votes to reach the magic figure of 34. Kanimozhi could hope for a smooth sail only if Vijayakanth of the DMDK declares his support for her. “But the prospects of Vijayakanth supporting the DMK looks so bleak now, especially since he is guided by Panruti Ramachandran, former right hand man of MGR, the AIADMK founder,” said N Kalyanasundaram, veteran political commentator.
Panruti knows the wily Karunanidhi inside out. Vijayakanth launched the DMDK with the declaration that he would usher in a non-DMK and non-AIADMK regime. “If he aligns with the DMK, Karunanidhi will welcome Vijayakanth with a Dhritharashtra-embracement and that will be the end of the DMDK,” pointed out Kalyanasundaram.