The grand Janata reunion just announced by Mulayam Singh Yadav and others has put their Kerala compatriots in a bind. The two Janata outfits in Kerala, the Janata Dal (Secular) and the Janata Dal (United), are part of rival fronts and neither, as of now, seems willing to shift camp. The Kerala JD(U) was formed when the CPM-led LDF refused the JD(S) its preferred Lok Sabha seat in the 2009 general elections. While the new party joined the UDF, and later, Nitish Kumar’s JD(U), the parent JD(S) stayed with the LDF. Both the Kerala fronts are now wooing the Janata Parivar. If the JD(U), which has two MLAs, walks out, the ruling UDF’s majority would be reduced to a single MLA, putting the government itself at risk. With the assembly election hardly a year away and given the pattern of alternation of the two fronts, the Janata MLAs may prefer the LDF.
But in Kerala, this is not just a Janata conundrum. Though Kerala politics revolves around two stable fronts, the cast of minor characters in the two coalitions has constantly changed. While the Congress and the CPM play the role of pivot, their partners frequently split and merge, while shifting sides. It was Kerala Congress (KC) leader, K.M. Mani, who once said his party splits as it grows and grows as it splits. Mani’s maxim for the KC holds true for most Kerala parties, including the Muslim League, the RSP and the socialists.
