Kerala
FIRST AMONG UNEQUALS
| Tamil Nadu: Veteran Vs Virago |
| West Bengal: Counter Revolution |
| Assam: Innocents Grow Up |
He is no intellectual giant like E.M.S. Namboodiripad, nor does he have the charisma of E.K. Nayanar. And unlike these former CPI(M) chief ministers from upper caste and feudal families, he is from a lower caste and class.
But today, this high-school dropout is the most powerful man in Kerala politics, thanks to his phenomenal organisational skills. He is convener of the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) and despite having no ideological airs, is the editor of party organ Desabhimani. Yet, Velikkakathu Sankaran Achuthanandan-78, veteran of the legendary Punnapra-Vayalar peasant uprising and politburo member for a decade now-has never even been a minister in his six decades of politics.
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| KEEPING FINGERS CROSSED: Antony (right) is the only obstacle in Achuthanandan's way | |
"VS" missed the big job on two occasions despite being projected as the CPI(M) chief ministerial aspirant. First, in 1991, when the LDF lost the election, thanks to the post-Rajiv Gandhi sympathy wave. In 1996, Achuthanandan was defeated by a lowly Congressman in Mararikkulam, where the CPI(M) had never tasted defeat. The villain? The CPI(M)'s inhouse trade union lobby which abhorred Achuthanandan. This time the man is leaving nothing to chance. He is the only politburo member in the fray and has moved to Malampuzha, the CPI(M)'s fortress in Palakkad district.
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LIMITS
OF BIPOLARITY
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| 1996 Assembly elections | |||
| Total Seats: 140 | Seats won | %Votes | |
| CPI (M)+ | 80 | 46.71 | |
| Congress+ | 60 | 45.57 | |
| 1999 Parliamentary elections | |||
| Total Seats: 20 |
Seats won | Assembly Segment Leads | % Votes |
| CPI (M)+ | 8 | 44 | 38.99 |
| Congress+ | 12 | 96 | 49.32 |
Now the only person he needs to take care of is Arakkaparambil Kurianpillai Antony, the Congress frontrunner for the chief minister's post. Starting his career as a student activist in the late 1950s against the first communist government, Antony's rise was meteoric thanks to his clean image. At 32, this law graduate became the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee's youngest president; at 37, its youngest chief minister. At 60, Mr Clean wants his job back. He hopes K. Karunakaran (see box), his senior colleague and traditional rival in the party, won't put a spanner in the works.
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K. Karunakaran: STAR-CROSSED |
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Shani (Saturn) is at its zenith. It's a very bad time for him till 2003," predicted M. Namboodiripad, astrologer to K. Karunakaran. But no one thought it would be this bad. The octogenarian's camp in the Congress has been given a minority share of 34 tickets. Even his daughter, K. Padmaja, has been denied a ticket. The old man sees this as an Antony conspiracy. He has resigned as the permanent invitee to the Congress Working Committee, obliquely threatening to sabotage the UDF's poll efforts. Karunakaran's has never got along with Sonia Gandhi, who earlier refused to appoint his son as the state unit chief. Even so, he recited a Malayalam poem that translated means, "It's wrong to expect an imprint on the son's backside just because his father rode an elephant." Strange, for a man who wants to build a dynasty. |
Karunakaran always had the high command's ear, thanks to his proximity to Indira and Rajiv Gandhi. But with Sonia Gandhi the equations have changed, with the lady showing a clear preference for Antony. This is what makes Antony so confident. Now if only Achuthanandan would oblige.
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