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Ploughing a lonely furrow

When people have nowhere to go, they usually choose to go home. But for the Democratic Indira Congress (Karunakaran), a breakaway party of the Congress in Kerala, this is a difficult choice to make. With the Communist Party of India (Marxist) deciding against admitting it into the Left Democratic Front, the DIC(K) is friendless in Kerala's polarised politics. After issuing calls for unity, the Congress does not seem keen to woo the DIC(K) leader, K. Karunakaran, back into the fold. Instead, the effort of the Congress currently is directed at winning over individual second line leaders of the breakaway outfit. The tactical shift is not without reason. Many of those who joined the DIC(K) did so in the hope the new party would be able to reach an understanding with the LDF. They expected to get an easy ride into the next Assembly, piggy-backing on the Left parties. With the doors of the LDF shut on them, these second line leaders, the Congress now believes, will return to the parent party. The DIC(K) without Mr. Karunakaran and his son, K. Muraleedharan, is what the Congress seems after. After all, Mr. Karunakaran formed his new party after years of fomenting dissidence in the Congress. To allow him back into the party is seen as an invitation to renewed trouble.

For Mr. Karunakaran too, negotiating a homecoming is no easy task. Without raising the possibility of an alliance with the LDF, he cannot shore up his bargaining with the Congress. Moreover, all the reasons that prompted him to walk out of the parent party remain. His factional rivals, A.K. Antony and Oommen Chandy, enjoy the confidence of the Congress high command. If he returns to the Congress under these circumstances, his position would be far worse than at the time he left it. Mr. Karunakaran and his son would have nothing to show for the period they spent outside the party. The only option, if it is a viable option, is forming a `third front' in the polarised political scenario of the State. Everything indicates that the CPI(M)-led LDF will win the Assembly election decisively and form the next government. Although most State CPI(M) leaders seemed keen on bringing in the DIC(K), evidently believing that would inflate the margin of victory, the party's Polit Bureau decided firmly against it. Thus, the options before Mr. Karunakaran are limited. With the Left repulsing his advances and the Congress high command in no mood to do yet another opportunist `reconciliation' deal, he has no choice but to make a virtue of necessity and sail with a third front this time. While the DIC(K) is likely to make a dent in the vote share of the Congress, it will be uphill all the way if Messrs Karunakaran and Muraleedharan hope to re-emerge as autonomous players in Kerala's politics.

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