Karunakaran friendless, home alone in Kerala

Many feel that but for Karunakaran, the state’s biggest anti-Marxist leader, Kerala could have had an uninterrupted, Bengal-like Left rule. Strangely, however, after he left the Congress last year to form the Democratic Indira Congress (Karunakaran), the veteran leader was brazenly wooed by the CPI(M)’s dominant group, led by state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan, who saw in the traditional foe-turned-friend those extra soft-Hindu votes that can add up to a brute majority.

The ten-month long courtship ended abruptly last Friday when Prakash Karat, who flew in to oversee the CPI(M)’s state committee proceedings, announced here that the party wanted no tie-up of any kind with the DIC(K). In one stroke, Karat pulled the red carpet from under Karunakaran’s feet, and left many red faces in the Pinarayi camp, bringing cheer to rival Achuthanandan as well as to the Left Front’s minor constituents, the CPI and the RSP, both averse to yielding turf to a new entrant.

Barring the ever-forgiving Antony, gleeful Congress leaders are showing little enthusiasm to have their old leader back, either in the party or in their front. The veteran has fallen between the two fronts that traditionally drive politics in the state. The BJP, forever looking for a third front to register electorally, should love to have him on board, but then no two saffron leaders here seem to agree on anything.

On his part Karunakaran rules no option out. While he is sure about the loser, he is silent on who will win the next poll. Asked whether he expects a repeat of 1965, when the state got a stillborn hung Assembly that yielded no government, he brightens. ‘‘In that event I will make sure there is a non-corrupt, non-sleeping government,’’ he says.

With the election announcement expected soon, the CPI(M) is back to the drawing board, armed with a huge eraser. The DIC(K) was its virtual ally in the last local body election and in a couple of bypolls to the Assembly and the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat. Karunakaran brought in decisive votes in certain panchayats and, overall, the extra votes made the Left look like an unstoppable winner. More, in a state where party politics travels right down to the grassroots and the Assembly is won or lost on a margin as low as 1 per cent of votes polled, the party has to micromanage every little branch. ‘‘The cadres will carry out orders but the campaign will lose steam,’’ says a branch committee member attached to a panchayat. What seemed like a cakewalk for the Left has turned out to be a less one-sided election.