THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Former diplomat M K Bhadrakumar is back in his home town on a new mission. The man who successfully tamed the anti-Indian rulers of Pakistan and Afghanistan will now attempt to tame a million-plus voters in Thiruvananthapuram constituency and convince them about the relevance of the Third Front.
What prompted the entry of Bhadrakumar into the election scene is the UDF choice of candidate, Shashi Tharoor. To take on an eloquent and vibrant Tharoor, CPI candidate P Ramachandran Nair needed a charioteer.
Who better to guide Nair’s chariot in the right direction than this master diplomat who can, in a single breath, reel out a hundred reasons for the need to oust the UPA from power? But if you say this to Bhadrakumar, he will immediately disagree.
“Individuals are not important here - Shashi, Nair and I are not important at all,” he told us on Tuesday in the midst of referring to Malayalam current affairs magazines in a city library.
Bhadrakumar said his first and foremost duty was to ensure that actual issues reached the people and were debated in the run-up to the poll.
“Don’t you see the writing on the wall? The Congress faces isolation even from its old allies. See what is happening in Bihar, UP, Jharkhand and Tamil Nadu. It will be foolish to expect that the UPA will come back to power,” he said.
According to him the Third Front is an organic creation, the formation of which has only come halfway. “After the election, more parties will join the Front,” said Bhadrakumar who is a key strategist in the research wing of the CPM in New Delhi. “A non- Congress, non-BJP secular government is what the people of India expect,” he added.
Bhadrakumar predicts a more creative role for the Left in that combination.
“It will be beneficial for Kerala. A Third Front government can give a thrust to solving specific issues faced by Kerala at the time of recession,” he said. Providing a rehabilitation package for Gulf returnees, announcing support prices for cash crops and a tax holiday for tourism and allied industries will be the priorities for such a government, he assures us.
The diplomat in Bhadrakumar was quick to add that Ramachandran Nair will promise voters that issues like the High Court Bench, Vizhinjam Port and Railway development will be solved in 100 days if a Third Front government comes to power.
Politics is not a new field for Bhadrakumar.
He belongs to a Communist family. His father M K Kumaran was a two-time MP from Chirayinkeezhu in 1957 and 62. Bhadrakumar has plans to shift his base to Thiruvananthapuram and become active in the social and political sphere of this city.