Commentary/Mani Shankar Aiyar

The lost patch; the lost votes

It is today one hundred days since I lost my bid for re-election. A hundred days in most people's lives is the wink of an eye. These have been my longest hundred days. I have returned to the constituency, which was once mine to pick up the pieces.

A hundred days before these hundred days, it seemed the next five years would be much the same as the last five. But five years of endeavour were wiped out in five weeks of politics. An erroneous alliance ended what a sound alliance had secured. A constituency that knew nothing of me voted me in with a huge majority. The same constituency, having got to know me and acknowledged the acquaintance most benignly, voted me out with an equally huge majority. I came in on a wave. I have departed on a wave. I came like water/ And like wind I go.

The people are most kind. As I travel around, there is sympathy in most eyes and affection in abundance. What is curious is the number who say they voted for me. If they did, where did the votes go?

True, the 214,000 votes I got is a large number of people from whom, as I pass, to garner sympathy and affection. They are, in any case, pleased that defeat has not driven me from their midst. Still, the question remains: What of the hundreds of thousands who did not vote for me? Why do so many of these insist that they did indeed cast one vote in the assembly seat against Jayalalitha but one vote in the parliamentary seat for me?

A Congress worker comes up with a legendary Tamil tale to explain the conundrum. The great Chola emperor, Rajarajendran, he says, called on all his subjects to offer a cup of milk as abhishek for the Nandi which waits at the entrance to the Brihadeeswara temple in Thanjavur. Each votary thought that since all the others were bringing milk, if he just poured out a cup of water who would know the difference? The Nandi ended bathed in water, not milk. That my friend suggests, is what happened to my vote. So many thought I would in any case win that a vote against Rao wouldnot amount to a vote against me! I laugh. It's good story.

The fact is that the non-Dravidian space in Mayiladuturai, as everywhere in Tamil Nadu, has been occupied by the Tamil Maanila Congress. The same Moopanar who could gather but 20,000 in the name of the Indian National Congress is able to collect 20,00,000 in the name of his regional Congress. The constituency is agog with the ebullient campaign to recruit TMC primary members that is sweeping the state like a tornado. Our Congress is still to even start printing its membership forms. Who will join us now?