It all adds up

For an election dramatically shorn of the customary colour, it is apt that the voter’s message is straight and sharp: just govern. In the four states and the Union territory of Pondicherry, that is the organising principle of the mandate. Visible development — or the yearning for it — has paid dividends in each of them. With its seventh successive victory in West Bengal, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s commitment to economic reform has extended the Left’s consolidation to urban areas. In Kerala, the LDF has reaped the anti-incumbency edge, with the Congress-led alliance frittering away its last years in office with factional disputes. In Tamil Nadu, in contrast, Jayalalithaa has averted the state’s trend of removing ruling alliances wholesale. She has managed to stay firmly entrenched for the longer, post-Karunanidhi stakes in the state on the strength of a record of development works and stable governance. In Pondicherry, the Congress’s lead had already been widely predicted. And in Assam, all that stirring rhetoric for a third front — euphemism for the first steps for political realignment at the Centre — has only left the Congress a few seats short of clear majority.

After a deservedly triumphalist victory cry, the Left must read the electoral verdict for its nuances. Two years into the term of the UPA alliance at the Centre, a divergence within the Left has been discernible: between its ideological recommendations for the Central government and the actual programmes of its government in Bengal. With the Left’s victories in Bengal and Kerala, that duality acquires two dimensions. The voter has snubbed the communist parties’ peripheral dalliances with parties like the AGP. And extrapolation from the constituency-wise performance of the Left actually indicates a slide from their Lok Sabha tally of 2004. The Left needs to rethink its current practice of lacing its support to the UPA with threats of alternatives within the current Lok Sabha or of mid-term polls. This is perhaps the most advantageous deal the communist parties could have, and they must buckle down to constructive support. Early indication that this could be on the cards can be read in Jyoti Basu’s comment that Buddhadeb should play a bigger role at the Centre.

That recommendation to prioritise development over discarded articles of ideology will, in any case, be tested in Kerala. The LDF is sharply divided there between the hardliners and the reformers. The Buddhadeb model has not just secured West Bengal for the communists. It has given them appeal beyond their traditional supporters. It provides a way of altering the terms of political combat in Kerala and cultivating a constituency for economic progress — instead of simply relying on a sliver of swing voters to shuffle the alliances at election time. As this round of elections has shown, the voter can be deeply gracious in acknowledging good governance.