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Vijay Simha
NEW DELHI, MAY 9: Kalpnath Rai doesn't look like he's in the forefront of a political trend. Clad in kurta-pyjama, the four-term Uttar Pradesh MP, last with the Samata Party, shuffles around with the help of two aides so painfully that you could feel sorry for him.
Renuka Chowdhry too is not the stuff of major trends. Striking looks and a combative approach haven't helped much as the former TDP stormy petrel and Union minister tries hard not to be a straggler.
However, despite the common thread of failure, the two ex-MPs are symbolic of an increasingly noticeable shift in the country's political balance.
Kalpnath and Renuka are ``migratory birds''. Roosting in the Congress.
With much fanfare and preparation, the 114-year-old Congress party is providing ``migratory birds'', a phrase tellingly coined by CWC member Arjun Singh to describe defecting politicians, shelter and promising them a future. Dropping whatever inhibitions it may have had, the party is promoting an argument that might ring odd to therest of the political spectrum: The Congress is efficient. The Congress is home.
Even more curiously, the bait is working. Almost 20 ``birds'' have roosted at 24, Akbar Road, the Congress headquarters, over the last three weeks and party leaders expect over 100 more to do so by election time. Apparently, the scope of the attraction is enormous and so is the range of alibis for being Congress-bound.
``Naidu (the Andhra Pradesh CM whom she once called a pickpocket) has turned the TDP saffron from yellow,'' fumed Renuka. ``Sonia is my leader and only she can stop the BJP,'' bleated N Dennis, TMC MP. But never mind what they're saying, the Congress experiment seems to be paying off. For, even as the migrators are being pared in their erstwhile parties, the trend is catching on.
While only one, Shahid Siddiqui, has quit the Congress to join Mulayam Singh, into the Congress came Dennis from Nagercoil, on the Tamil Nadu-Kerala border, Renuka from Hyderabad, TDP MP Vijayarama Raju from the Andhra coast, ButaSingh from Jalore, Rajasthan, a group of six Lok Shakti chieftans from Karnataka, four Samajwadi Party leaders from Mumbai and one from Meerut, Neil Tirkey of the JMM from Jharkand and Kalpnath Rai from Ghosi (UP). More are expected from other states.
Still, the trend is controversial. Few have officially objected to admitting the prodigals back in the Congress but critics charge that the party will have to pay for yanking the ladder away from those who stood by the leadership in troubled times.
Indeed, last September in Pachmarhi, the Congress thinktank debated this topic hotly and many felt the defectors must be put through a ``cooling'' period of three years before they are given party posts. There's some logic to this. Even a cursory glance at the CWC, the top decision-making body in the Congress, shows a high percentage of prodigals in it.
At least six CWC members, forming 25 per cent of the panel, have at some point of time quit the Congress to form their own outfits: Arjun Singh, PranabMukherjee, Sharad Pawar, Madhavrao Scindia, A K Antony and Meira Kumar. The first four are still the core of the Congress thought process, a decent incentive for today's ``migratory birds''.
Thirteen months ago, the exodus was the other way: people leaving the Congress everyday, chipping away at its credibility. Now, the queue is growing at Akbar Road. And though its too early to judge, the initial results are encouraging.
The smiles are back at 10, Janpath, and people have been put fulltime on the job of spotting potential ``birds''. One catch, however, exists. The big fish are not biting yet: people like G K Moopanar, P Chidambaram, Mamata Banerjee and Suresh Kalmadi continue to stay a fair distance away from the Congress.
Until they migrate, the Congress will only have stolen the early thunder. The last laugh is yet to come.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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