Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Verdict against political elitism

C. Gouridasan Nair

When the power of the margins shook the political epicentre

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: When tectonic shifts happen, force unleashed from the epicentre rocks the margins. But the poll verdict in Kerala shows that it can also be the other way round: that of the margins rocking the epicentre.

In many ways, the crushing defeat that the people meted out to the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) was the result of an uprising from the margins. It was a vote against elitism and a grammar of governance that tended to be elitist.

The poll outcome would not have been of this magnitude if the people had believed that Kerala's developmental path must course through `smart cities' alone.

It would not have had the definitive character of a backlash against the power elite if the people, a large number of them women, had not seen in the elections an opportunity to send a strong message that social security, in all its dimensions, has as much importance for them as all the talk about somebody being pro- or anti-development.

As a keen watcher of Kerala politics put it, this is, perhaps, the first election in the State in which women's power attained critical mass.

Although the victory of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) is very much in tune with the trend seen in various byelections, the 2004 Lok Sabha polls and the 2005 local body elections, there is something different in its content. And that has to do with the way the people have endorsed the call for cleanliness in politics.

It will be wrong to say that there was no anti-incumbency wave in the Assembly elections — for, a massive victory of the kind that the LDF has scored is impossible without there being a strong urge for regime change.

But, given the fact that the Oommen Chandy Government had much in it that was endearing for the middle class, the vote could have been only one against a political culture dominated by money power and misuse of power for the benefit of mafia of all hues.

Unfortunately for Mr. Chandy, who personally put everything into governance during the 20 months he got to be in office and successfully turned mainstream discourse in Kerala to the theme of development, his Government was widely perceived as having been defender and benefactor of such forces.

At the other end of spectrum, V.S. Achuthanandan emerged over the last five years as the representative image of counterpoint.

Caught in the matrix of inner party squabbles, his party colleagues failed to see this for a while. But they had to grudgingly admit his stature when the masses, actively aided by an alert media, made it known that they are not going to remain silent if Mr. Achuthanandan were to be sidelined.

The veteran leader's triumphant march through the heart of Kerala in the subsequent days and the heavy turnout of people, particularly women, at all his meetings bore clear signals as to which way the wind was blowing even in the Muslim heartland. That despite his being dubbed `anti-Muslim.'

Perhaps, it was only natural for the people to dump the political savvy and opt for the political outsider. That his caste identity never figured in the poll talk shows that he was perceived by all more as the personified critique of the status quo than anything else. That could not but take the wind out of the sails of many communal centres of power and dim their clout to drive hard bargains.

The attention now turns to Cabinet formation. The magnitude of the mandate cannot but get reflected in the shape and content of the LDF Cabinet.

The question as to who will be Chief Minister will be decided by the CPI(M) Polit Bureau at its meeting in New Delhi on Saturday.

The proposal of the Polit Bureau will be discussed and approved by the party State committee meeting here on Monday. The LDF State committee will meet within a day or two to formalise the size of the Cabinet.

Informal discussions, so far, suggest that the LDF Cabinet will be compact. While the factional divisions in the CPI(M) will be the basic deciding factor so far as the persons to be included goes, there is the distant possibility of the CPI(M) going in for some surprise picks. It did so in 1987 when, under the leadership of E.M.S. Namboodiripad, it picked a rank outsider like T.K. Hamza to be Housing Minister in the second Nayanar Cabinet.

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