The ebb of a 'People's' movement which had the might to fight the Emergency

The Left Democratic Front (LDF) has always given the deserving seats to Mathew T Thomas, a Janata Dal-Secular (JDS) leader, who stood unwaveringly with the LDF even when Veerendrakumar had changed stands and moved to the UDF. In the last Assembly Elections, Janata Dal (U) did not touch green at all. The party had to embrace miserable failure in all the 7 seats where it had fielded candidates, including the one where Shreyams Kumar had contested from. CPM secretary Pinarayi Vijayan was particularly careful about fielding the right candidates in the seats where JDU competed. The Janata Dal (Secular), which was with the LDF, won in three of the five seats where it contested from and Mathew T Thomas became a Minister.

Kozhikode (Kerala): The political arena of Kerala is hotchpotch; more so, during the run-up to the assembly elections in the State. In response to the number of seats allotted by the LDF to the Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD), which had sought refuge in the Left camp after leaving the United Democratic Front (UDF), one of the party’s prominent youth leaders had posted on the social media that ‘while one group had licked it to death, the other strangulates it to death’, referring to his party's state in the present alliance.

Janata Party

The Janata Party (literally translated as the People’s Party) was once nicknamed the patriots of India. An amalgamation of the political parties which opposed and fought the Emergency imposed in India came to be known by the broad name Janatha Party or JNP in short. The JNP was no less than the Indian National Congress then. In the 1977 Lok Sabha elections, the JNP was mighty enough to form a non-Congress government for the first time in the history of independent India.

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The amalgam party, thus formed by bringing together the different phases of Socialist movements in India, strengthened under one banner with the symbol of 'a farmer with a plough’, guided the country’s future in the right direction then. Despite conflicting ideologies, the parties stood united led by Acharya Narendra Deva, Jayaprakash Narayan and Ram Manohar and the likes.

The candour and will of the Janata Party remained a warning to those who strayed from the rightful path in the power politics in the country. It has pepped up the spirits even in today’s protests including the farmers' protest that continues against the Centre’s farm laws.

Sadly though, the conflicts that started within soon after assuming power continues to haunt the ‘Janatha’ constituents even today. The JP emaciated to a scrawny level. Subramanian Swamy’s attempt to retain the name Janata Party also saw no change. The constituent parties continue to fight and merge every now and then.

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Janata in Kerala

In Kerala, there is no party named Janata Dal. Fighting for power between themselves, the Janata constituents have split into many splinter factions and are known by different names now. Of the many splinters, the Janata Dal-Secular (JDS) and the Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD) are the prominent former Janata constituents in Kerala.

When the JDS split into two, the first splinter to form was the Janata Dal United (JDU). In Bihar, it has strong leadership under Nitish Kumar. Nitish, who was considered a prominent politician to lead a collective against Narendra Modi at the Centre, moved to the same camp and allied with the BJP.

With this move, the Kerala faction which was clinging on to the Janatha tradition moved with the LJD as an alternative at the national level. That was a bold move by M P Veerendrakumar. Veerendrakumar and his supporters migrated to the UDF camp protesting against the CPM move of taking over the Kozhikode seat during the Lok Sabha elections. Under the name JDU and the symbol of an arrow, the faction won a seat to the Assembly and K P Mohanan became the Minister.

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The LDF always allotted deserving seats to Mathew T Thomas, who stood with the LDF unwavering, even while Veerendrakumar shifted to the UDF camp. However, the JDU did not see victory in the last Assembly elections. All the seven candidates fielded by the party failed miserably, including Shreyams Kumar. The CPM secretary Pinarayi Vijayan was particularly careful about fielding the right candidates against the JDU in the seats where JDU competed.

The Janata Dal (Secular), which was part of the LDF, won in three of the five seats where it contested from and Mathew T Thomas became the Minister. Later, P K Krishnankutty also served as a Minister.

The Veerendrakumar-led faction which was tarnished while with the UDF was agitated. When Veerendrakumar’s failure at Palakkad for Lok Sabha elections was analysed to be because the Congress had stabbed from behind, the agitation with the faction became public.

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When the bitter foes, Pinarayi Vijayan and Veerendrakumar shared a stage, it broke the ice. Soon, the Veerendrakumar faction also joined the Left camp.

Nevertheless, the state of ‘Janatha’ constituents continues to be disappointing as the splinter factions are still not ready to learn from the experiences. It is the misery of being under the same alliance as two different entities under different names with the same ideologies. The merger between the LJD and the JDS was being talked about well before the elections.

However, it has not happened so far as it is yet to be concluded on which is the river to merge with the sea.

Finally, with the elections around the corner, the LDF has allotted seats to both the ‘Janatas’ separately. The JDS, which had contested in 5 seats in the last polls, has been allotted 4 seats this time. Shreyams faction, which had contested in 7 seats with the UDF last time, have been given three under the same alliance.

It is being said that if the Janata parties had merged and stood together, they could have been allotted at least one more seat by the LDF. Although those who were deemed leaders are keen on getting weak by splitting, rather than strengthen by joining hands.

The splits and cracks within the Indian socialist movement have rendered the once-mighty movement to wane and ebb as time passed by. The wear down process seems to continue without a stop for the Janata constituents despite being in the same camp.

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