Poor Kerala! It had to compete with Karisma and Sunjay Kapur kissing and making up in court and simultaneously with Sourav Ganguly and Greg Chappell snarling at each other. How could a few million citizens choosing their representatives compete with such theatre? Small wonder the Kerala local body elections barely rated a blip on the radar for non-Malayalam news channels!Is that a harsh assessment? Well, yes. Truth be told, even the said voters were not interested. Over a third did not bother to stroll up to the voting booth to jab at a button of their choice. What does that say about the relationship between voters and politicians in general?The leaders may have been too busy with ‘‘preparations’’ to notice the apathy. The tension was so thick that a prudent Election Commission declared that 45 per cent of the booths in Kannur were “sensitive”, par for the course in Bihar but this is India’s ‘‘most literate state’’ we are talking about. The Election Commission went to the extent of getting insurance for its entire staff posted in that district.The actual results of the election were as anticipated. The Congress had led the United Democratic Front to disaster in the general election last year; the alliance won only one of the twenty seats from Kerala. (The Congress itself drew a blank.) The CPI(M), master of the Left Democratic Front, was, however, taking no chances. Both eyes set firmly on the Assembly elections — under six months away — the Marxists wooed old foes and made new friends.P.C. Thomas had won Muvattupuzha on an Indian Federal Democratic Party ticket. Don’t bother looking for the history of the party, it has none, being created for the purpose of giving Thomas a vehicle after he was squeezed out of the Kerala Congress. Thomas aligned with the National Democratic Alliance in 2004. But the Communists’ disdain for the BJP and all its allies did not prevent them from courting Thomas, and he is now as firmly a member of the Left Democratic Front as he was of the National Democratic Alliance.Thomas is small game, the real prize was Karunakaran. The veteran Congressman — he joined the party before Sonia Gandhi was born — had finally got tired of the Congress. Or vice versa, depending on whose version you believe. He and his son founded the Democratic Indira Congress-Karunakaran. “Do you have any more doubts about the strength of K. Karunakaran’s party?” Pinnarayi Vijayan, CPI(M) state secretary, asked reporters after the results started pouring in. It was purely rhetorical as the facts speak for themselves. At least a dozen bodies — the precise details are not in as I write — in Ernakulam and Thrissur districts have been wrested by the new found brothers-in-arms. These are places that resisted the blandishments of the Left for thirty years, as I recall. Karunakaran’s party has also performed rather well in the Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode districts.Was it Hemingway who described courage as “grace under pressure”? The Congress in Kerala is certainly under pressure to perform, but there was precious little grace on display. Ramesh Chennithala, president of the state unit, was remarkably graceless in trying to play down the impact of the Karunakaran factor. “Yes, they might have won a few seats here and there but that was because they had the support of the Left Democratic Front. Wherever they stood without the support of the Left Democratic Front they had to bite the dust. It has been proved beyond doubt that they are not at all an independent party which can create any impact.”I had always thought the whole point of an alliance is to lend strength to partners. But I suppose a Congressman in Kerala can be forgiven for thinking the reverse; after all, the Congress has decades of experience of disappointment with the Muslim League! Interestingly, I suspect Ramesh Chennithala may have also got his facts wrong. While the counting is still going on, there is a distinct possibility that the Karunakaran group may win more seats than the CPI. In other words, the CPI(M) is getting more from Karunakaran than from others such as, say, the Congress(S) or the Revolutionary Socialist Party. (The three junior allies were notably upset with Big Brother CPI(M) for getting Karunakaran.)I do not grudge the politicians their fun and games. But in the hoopla over alliances, did anyone bother to discuss the issues? The municipal services in Kerala are a disgrace, not least the spectacularly poor roads. Why was neither alliance talking about the ‘‘bijli sadak pani’’ factor? How about a genuine attempt to transfer power — meaning money — as far down the chain as possible, rather than over-centralisation in Thiruvananthapuram? Neither bloc seems interested, nor is there a viable third option. (The BJP has emerged as the largest party in Palakkad, and done rather well in Kasargode, but is scarcely a force in most of Kerala.)A voter turnout between 60 per cent and 65 per cent is nothing to sneeze at, about the same as in every major democracy. But it is well below the 70 per cent that used to be the norm in Kerala. And if this bland refusal to discuss the issues continues, more voters will be sitting at home and sneezing come the next polls!
