Last week I posted on the efforts of Mamata Banerjee, the CM of Bengal, in galvanizing the support for the formation of a ‘Federal front,’ to take on the might of Modi and BJP.
Many leaders have met her, a few on the sly, while she also camped at Delhi, visiting the parliament to meet leaders of a few parties. She is now due to visit Tamil Nadu on the 10th April ‘and call on the ailing patriarch of the DMK party, Shri M. Karunanidhi,’ besides mooting the proposal of the front with the party with the next in command of DMK, M.K. Stalin and Kanimozhi the daughter.
I reconnected with a few leaders and scribes in TN today and browsed the issue. DMK, though is warm to Mamata’s efforts is log jammed with their alliance with Congress and the left. It appears that senior CPI leaders like D. Raja have expressed their anguish over rundown of their older ties for the new ones. My take, as on today, Stalin would romp in to win most seats in 2019 elections!
Back in Delhi, the move to impeach the Chief Justice of India is getting fizzled out, with TDP opting out of the motion and Trinamool in a state of indecisiveness. It seems Congress is the only party serious to move the impeachment motion on the CJI. Though Sonia Gandhi was warm to Mamata’s efforts in the formation of the third front, it seems that she has been non-committal over the role of Mamata’s leadership in the front, which would impair her party’s plan to project Rahul as the apparent PM face of any front.
Even as the West Bengal State Congress Chief Adhir Choudhury, passionately argued before the Calcutta High Court in person (due to the lawyers’ strike), seeking Central forces to help filing nominations, equally forceful was a grateful Abhishek Manu Singhvi, the recently re-elected Rajya Sabha M.P., with the help of Trinamool, that Central forces aren’t necessary, thus rewarding the state party appropriately.
Another impediment is Chandrababu Naidu, who played a crucial role during his alliance in the UPA. He is pursuing his goals different from Mamata and may attempt to structure a front different from what the TMC supremo may have planned. AIADMK and TDP ensured that the staged no-confidence motion could never be taken up by crowding the well of the parliaments until the budget session ended in a complete washout. If TDP was concerned by a promised special status for Andhra Pradesh, Tamil MPs were shouting over the trickling and drying up Cauvery Delta.
For the moment, Mamata’s Chennai visit may end up merely as a goodwill visit and exchange of Rosogollas and Kozakattais, the latter Tamil sweet deliberately chosen by the willy to prove the difficulty in its pronunciation and as well the complex Tamil politics, unknown to Didi.
The rout of BJP from the hands of Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi elections has made the BJP wiser, with Amit Shah structuring an elaborate plan proved successful in most state elections and resulting in NDA’s control over 19 states. The outcome of Karnataka polls could pave way for the structure of the union government in 2019, making or breaking Modi. Rahul, I leave it to your guess!
Sampath Kumar
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