Will she? Won’t she? One of the tallest leaders produced by the Communist movement in Kerala, K.R. Gouri, a nonagenarian, keeps everyone guessing as the political heat climbs in the State.
Ms. Gouri was expelled from the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in 1994, and she went on to found the Janadhipathya Samrakshana Samithi (JSS). Her party could find a place in the United Democratic Front, but now it is out of the Congress-led front and has associated with the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front, which, however, has denied it any seats.
As things stand, she has been following a “touch me, touch me not” policy towards political parties and fronts. The last word on a tie-up is yet to emerge even as the rank and file of political fronts and parties are out in the electoral battle field.
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A week ago, Ms. Gouri declared that the JSS would contest alone. The party wants to field six candidates in select constituencies, but the names of the seats or candidates are yet to be announced.
More than expressing her will to contest, she intends to give a message to her opponents that the party cannot be neglected. And no one could ignore the warning in her message.
The JSS had undergone several splits in the past. When the LDF rejected the party’s demand for three seats, her reaction apparently made the desired vibes in political circles. Emissaries of the LDF met her last week. The message was loud and clear. The LDF did not want the JSS to get alienated from the front. Though the seat-sharing arrangement was over, the party could be accommodated in places of authority if the LDF gains power.
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The compromise formula was neither accepted nor rejected. She was obviously buying time. And as the decision was pending, more political activity followed.
A.N. Rajan Babu, head of a breakaway group of the JSS, liaised with the BJP leadership to take Ms. Gouri’s party to the National Democratic Alliance fold. In fact, the invitation added strength to the bargaining power of the JSS and the party is toying with several options now. The party can go it alone, be an ally of the LDF or join the NDA. The final answer has to come from Ms. Gouri who is playing the political cards close to her chest.