IF the elections were one big cricket match, these would be the "Extras". The sundries, as the touring Aussies call it. Not amounting to much if the star batsman slams a double century.But very, very useful in a lowscoring game as the 12th Lok Sabha has turned out to be. And they could—will—make the difference between victory and defeat, for the Congress, UF and the BJP.
On air and in print, scorers pencil them in as the "Others and Independents". But in the final tally, the quaint, quixotic ways of one-man parties have added colour, chaos and confusion to a post-'80s federal polity bent double by the demise and mummyfication of one-party rule. Beneath their victories, often against national parties, though, is a message. Sample some:
SUBRAMANIAN SWAMY Janata Party, Madurai
The eternal gadfly is conclusive proof that bedfellows make strange politics. Barely three years ago, the Tamil Brahmin was riling against AIADMK supremo Jayalalitha and her misdemeanours, with the scarred face of acid-thrown Chandralekha as his mascot. Three years later, the Tam-Brahm who can barely utter a sentence in "decent" Tamil, is MP from his "home-district" with both Jaya and Chandralekha on his side. How's that?
Dazzling his constituents with his personal computer ("See I'm already sending your complaint, see, it's already on its way"); ranting at the other Great Tamil Hope P. Chidambaram ("He sold the country. I'll save it"); the former Harvard don split the DMK-TMC vote, socked it to a promising CPI(M) candidate, and romped home by 20,000 votes, less than two years after the same DMK-TMC candidate had triumphed by 200,000 votes.
Cause for champagne, you would think. But Swamy's such a sticky customer, the BJP's Jana Krishnamurthy is already saying Swamy's tie-up was with Jaya, and that the state BJP had no hand in it. Swamy conveniently calls it the "escape clause like in GATT" but if anybody has perfected the art of sliding up the greasy pole it is him.
Having told his voters that "I'm a serious candidate for PM", he is now being spoken of as a possible finance minister in the BJP ministry by the Delhi press, thanks to the influence Jaya wields following the AIADMK's surprise showing. Point is, if Swamy gets to North Block will he stick to that stellar promise in his party manifesto? To abolish income-tax!
VAZHAPADI K. RAMAMURTHY Tamil Nadu Rajiv Congress, Salem
There were two big ironies in Election '98. Both Ramakrishna Hegde, who tripped over the telephone tapping trap that Swamy laid for him, and Jayalalitha, who lost her kursi following Swamy's sustained anti-corruption campaign, triumphed in a big way. But on such thin ice are political rivalries built, that all three (Hegde, Jaya and Swamy) have ended up on the same side with huge stakes in the next government.
An even greater irony, however, is Vazhapadi Ramamurthy. The AIADMK-BJP tieup to which Vazhapadi, like Swamy, owes his victory, came exactly a day before the courts indicted Jayalalitha for the TIDCO disinvestment scam that the Vazhapadi-Swamy duo dug up, and for which they had moved heaven and Raj Bhavan for governor M. Chenna Reddy's sanction to prosecute the then chief minister.
More importantly, the political career of the former trade unionist and Union minister of state for labour—he quit P.V. Narasimha Rao's ministry to support Jaya's fast over the Cauvery dispute—has came full circle in this election.Having started off in the Dravidian movement, Vazhapadi, whose ability to play the Vanniyar card has brought him in close proximity with the PMK chief Dr S. Ramadoss, has ended up in the saffron brigade. Jayalalitha had insisted on his appointment as TNCC chief, in place of G.K. Moopanar, as a precondition for the AIADMK-Congress 1989 poll alliance. Rajiv Gandhi complied.
Vazhapadi returned to the Congress after a brief flirtation with Arjun Singh and N.D. Tiwari. But left the party after Sitaram Kesri appointed his bete noire Thangabalu as the TNCC chief. Out in the wide ocean, he floated his own boat, aligned with Jaya, and got his back at Thangabalu, winning by 135,000 votes. The TMC candidate had won the last election by 120,000 votes.
P.C. THOMAS Kerala Congress (Mani), Muvattupuzha
To the question "How will the elections go?", a common response in Kerala has for long been "19-1": nineteen seats against, and one for (whoever). That single-digit figure is provided by master-manipulator K.M. Mani's party.
Mani, who broke from the Congress to encash his Christian vote-bank, almost got a berth in Chandra Shekhar's micro-minority ministry but was reportedly stopped in his tracks by redoubtable old foe K. Karunakaran. Since then Mani's big trip in life has been to avenge that slight.
Chacko, the sitting MP, son of the legendary P.T. Thomas, polled 20,000 more votes than the 92,000 he got the last time, but it's Mani who calls the shots. Although no longer MP—which diminishes his chances of becoming central minister that much more—Mani's political philosophy in the current scenario boils down to three small words: up for grabs.
G.M. BANATWALA Muslim League, Ponnani
Like Subramanian Swamy, the Bombay-born former Bombay University professor can hardly speak the local lingo: in this case Malayalam. But thanks to the demographic profile in the nation's first Muslim district—Malappuram—Banatwala and his colleague E. Ahamed in the neighbouring constitutency Manjeri sail through in poll after poll.
The CPM put up a woman candidate this time round against Banatwala, in itself a pretty brave thing to do, but the Muslim League president—who contested and lost a Bombay Municipal Corporation election in 1961—won with more votes than the previous time, as he has been doing ever since he first contested here in 1977.Any wonder then that his one-man party in Delhi's eyes has 13 MLAs in the assembly, and is a senior partner in the Congress-led United Democratic Front?
ANAND MOHAN SINGH Rashtriya Janata Party, Sheohar
Shankersinh Vaghela's party didn't win a single seat in Gujarat but opened its account in Bihar. Banking on his much notorious muscle and Rajput power, and Laloo Yadav's support, Anand Mohan Singh came up trumps. And with more than 35 cases against him, has become a potent weapon in Laloo's armoury after Pappu Yadav deserted Bihar ka Aandhi and hitched his wagon to that other sage of secularism, Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Anand Mohan's loyalties are therefore currently with Laloo, who's tagged his RJD on to the Congress. (He was ordered out of Madhepura where he had gone to vote for Laloo.) But reports have it that the BJP is trying to win him over.
SULTAN SALAHUDDIN OWAISI Majlis-e-Ittehadul-Muslimeen, Hyderabad
The choice in Mohammed Azharuddin's hometown is between the revolver politics of BJP's A. Narendra and the talwar tactics of Owaisi. Sick of the street-side brawls between supporters of the two, thrice now Charminar City, which has a solid Muslim votebank, has opted for the latter.
The Majlis split in the early '90s after a "son stroke". Owaisi's trusted soldier Amanullah Khan deserted the party, saying the boss's main trip seemed to be to project his offspring, Asasuddin Owaisi. Khan floated the Majlis Bachao Tehreek to safeguard the city from the Owaisis after slamming father and son for going soft on the Congress after December 6.
In spite of such sabrerattling, Khan avoided fielding a candidate against Owaisi Sr this time round which paved the way for his victory. The truce may be in order against the backdrop of Chandrababu Naidu supping with the common enemy: BJP. Still, Owaisi's hitlist is a bit like that of the communist parties: enemy number one BJP; number two Congress.
CHANDRA SHEKHAR Samajawadi Janata Party, Ballia
Wave or no wave, the Bhondsi Baba wins come what may, a bit like Morarji Desai. Blue Star. Rajiv Gandhi. Liberalisation. He has weathered them all, and nothing but nothing—not even Subramanian Swamy who contested against him for the Janata Party presidentship—has stopped his onward march. So it was this time.
Candidates have nothing but the election and its results in mind you would think. But Shekhar found the time in the midst of his re-election bid to speak out against the leak of the President K.R.Narayanan's letter to Prime Minister Gujral on the Romesh Bhandari issue.
Still, victory ensued. Listen to the pin drop when Shekhar gets up next to give an earful to the prime minister / presiding officer / leader of the opposition or whoever crosses his path in Parliament next.
SHEESHRAM OLA AICC (Secular), Jhunjhunu
One of two who didn't rejoin the Congress when the Tiwari unit merged with the parent body (Satpal Maharaj was the other), Ola was a minister in both the Deve Gowda and Inder Kumar Gujral ministries. He had asked the Congress to field a non-Jat candidate against him but the party, after agreeing at first, refused to oblige. Reason: in the eyes of The Family, his professed loyalty to Madam G, was doubtful because he didn't rush to her aid on the issue of the Jain Commission report. Managed to beat the BJP candidate by 38,000 votes but the BJP thinks that both the Congress and United Front are of little use to Ola, and that when push comes to shove, he will be well and firmly behind the party.
OMAK APANG and W. RAJKUMAR , Arunachal Congress
The country's second longest serving chief minister after Jyoti Basu may be as anti-Congress as they come. But Gegong Apang couldn't quite resist the temptation to put up son Omak in the traditions of the grand ol' party. Angry at the imposition of an unacceptable (to him) pradesh Congress chief, Gegong took away 45 of the 50 MLAs and formed the Arunachal Congress in September '96. Such dare-devilry seems to have been rewarded with the election of both his candidates. Gegong's ire at the Congress for betraying him—especially the way S.B. Chavan handled the Chakma crisis—continues. But he now says he will support anybody who's in Arunachal's interests.
L. CHAUBA SINGH Manipur State Congress
Anti-Congressism rules in the northeast, OK. The good times continue to roll for the MSC which broke away from the parent body ten years ago in protest at the leadership of Rishang Keishing, who had been at the helm for almost 20 years. W. Nipamacha Singh—one of Keishing's four trusted men—who pulled the plug on the chief minister made anti-Congressism the MSC's raison d'etre, and political observers say Chauba Singh won as people in "the easternmost outpost of Hinduism" continue to vote for the party as a form of approval for having dared to confront the hegemony of the Congress.
JAYANTA RONGPI Autonomous State Demand Committee, Hill District
The one who got away in the JMM scam. Rongpi, the lone Naxalite-MP from Assam in the last three Lok Sabhas, also got Rs 1 crore from P.V. Narasimha Rao's men to absent himself from the house for the crucial confidence vote. But while Shailendra Mahato and Co were ensnared in the CBI net, Rongpi—who is linked to the Vinod Mishra faction of the CPI(ML)—escaped. Rongpi's ASDC which signed a landmark pact with S.B. Chavan for the creation of a state within a state—has a stranglehold over the twin hill districts of Karbi Anglong and North Cachar hills. And won't let go.
BHIM DAHAL SIkkim Democratic Front
It was all very simple when Nar Bahadur Bhandari and Pawan Kumar Chamling were together. But Chamling's revolt, then his stint as a political fugitive—hiding or running away from Bhandari—and the formation of the SDF has upset the power-equation. Chamling strode to power, then Dahal won the '96 election with Congress support, and now without it.
