In the land of ‘Aya Ram, Gaya Ram’, the maverick Congress MP from Karnal Dr Arvind Sharma has taken political flip-flop to new heights. As others looked hesitantly around, this MP changed his stand on the no-trust vote against the UPA Government four times in a short span of five days.Beginning with an outburst against the Congress for lashing out at a Dalit woman (Mayawati) to his volte-face the very next day and then return to the BSP a day later, Sharma kept everyone guessing until D-Day, when he finally cast his vote in favour of the UPA.It took some artful manoeuvering by Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and MP Jai Prakash to make Sharma see the sense of remaining in the party. An important Brahmin leader from the region, Sharma is a dentist by profession who also enjoys the support of non-Brahmin communities. Beginning as an Independent in the 1996 Lok Sabha polls, when he won from Sonepat, Sharma has had quite a colourful political innings. His convincing victory over Haryana Congress president Dharampal Malik in the Jat-dominated Sonepat made him much sought-after amongst political parties of the state but in 1998, Sharma chose to go with the Shiv Sena, which has hardly a presence in the state, and lost. A disgruntled Sharma then joined the Congress, but when the party did not allot him a ticket, he rebelled and fought the parliamentary election as an Independent from Rohtak against present Chief Minister Hooda, only to bite the dust once again. But undeterred, he sought and got the Karnal ticket in the 2004 parliamentary elections, in which the Congress went on to win nine out of 10 Lok Sabha seats.Known as a people’s politician, Sharma works like a local MLA, looking into micro issues concerning his constituency besides making it a point to attend every important marriage and bhog. He is also quite a hit with Dalits whose houses he is known to frequent.Though soft-spoken and suave, Dr Sharma is also known to take on fellow politicians regardless of their clout. People close to him say he can be a very tough nut to crack. This was quite evident last year when he took up cudgels against Navin Jindal, Congress MP from Kurukshetra, on the issue of a land deal. Insiders say Sharma has set his sights on reaching the top post in the state one day. It was perhaps BSP chief Mayawati’s promise to catapult him to that seat that set him thinking of joining the party.Last year, Sharma was on the verge of becoming the Haryana Congress president when at the last moment the rug was pulled from under his feet by the Congress leadership and Dalit leader Phool Chand Mullana was given the post instead. As if to rub more salt into his wounds, Sharma’s arch rival Kuldeep Sharma, who had been suspended from the party for fighting the parliamentary election from Karnal as a rebel in 2004, was appointed the Working President of the Haryana Congress. His associates say he is also very bitter with the ruling party because of its neglect of his constituency. Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, he had groused last week, had promised to set up a nursing and an engineering college in memory of late astronaut Kalpana Chawla but to no avail.So the MP from Karnal may have been waiting for a chance to vent his angst. The trust vote provided him the perfect opportunity, almost.
