Meghnad Desai loves to cook, watch and write about old Bollywood movies and shuttles between London, Delhi and Goa. He pursues controversies on economics, history and anything else which catches his attention. He is also a British parliamentarian sitting in the House of Lords. He has written over 25 books, over 200 articles in learned journals and hundreds of newspaper columns in UK and India.
Out of my mind: Stalin’s call sets lines buzzing
The process of forming an anti-Modi grand coalition has a major problem. There being too many aspirant prime ministers, to satisfy all, the silent agreement was to wait till after the elections. Stalin brooked no silence.
The debut of M K Stalin on the stage of national politics has put the proverbial cat among the political pigeons. By naming Rahul Gandhi as the prime ministerial candidate for the Mahagathbandhan (MGB), he has started a chain reaction. The process of forming an anti-Modi grand coalition has a major problem. There being too many aspirant prime ministers, to satisfy all, the silent agreement was to wait till after the elections. Stalin brooked no silence.
Stalin is no amateur. He announced the Rahul candidature precisely to break up the MGB to give the DMK a better chance at influencing Cabinet formation when and if the MGB wins.
The logic is simple. There are three sorts of parties which matter. First are the two big parties, the BJP and Congress, which contest seats in all the states of the Union. The next group is the regional/caste parties, such as the SP, RJD, BSP, NCP, which have a footprint in one state but can grab a few seats elsewhere. These parties go with the Congress but also compete with it while definitely opposing the BJP. They would favour post-election transaction, as was proposed in Madhya Pradesh.
The third sort is the group of State Satraps who control their local state solidly but face the national parties as rivals in the state elections. This is the group with the TDP, TMC, BJD, TRS. This is the cradle of would-be prime ministers. They want the final choice to be postponed. Stalin is alone among them in the unique position of binary competition with the AIADMK. He has to be chief minister before he can go further. The national parties are not his rivals. They both have been clients for DMK support in the past. Following the UPA, he has sealed his alliance with the Congress by naming Rahul as PM candidate.
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