Heads at the Centre are made in state bhavans

NEW DELHI: In summer 1996, United Front (UF) leaders mounted a desperate search for Mr V P Singh so as to make him prime minister. When the seekers, chief ministers Karunanidhi, Chandrababu Naidu, Deve Gowda and Lalu Prasad Yadav, returned to Tamil Nadu Bhavan at night, a journalist asked the Dravidian leader if they had found Mr Singh.

“Avar Illai,” Mr Karunanidhi punned in reply, conveying that Mr Singh was missing and would remain missing when the PM was named. Just over a decade later, Tamil Nadu Bhavan is again the centre of political activity in the Capital.

In a throwback to the UF days, when the fate of prime ministerial hopefuls was decided in state bhavans, UPA’s presidential candidate, if she wins, would have made it to the imposing Rashtrapati Bhavan through the humble corridors of Tamil Nadu Bhavan.

In the UF era, the likes of Mr Deve Gowda and Mr I K Gujral spent restless hours inside TN and Andhra Pradesh Bhavans before getting clearances for occupying the prime minister’s house.

However, then, unlike now, it was the all-powerful Mr Naidu who played troubleshooter. Just as Mr Karunanidhi drove straight to the prime minister’s residence from the airport on Thursday night, Mr Nadiu would head for CPM general secretary Harkishan Surjeet’s house. The critics disparaged this routine as Mr Naidu’s meeting with the ‘Vasisht Maharishi’ of Indian politics, but after his stopover, the Andhra leader would be armed to deal with the crisis at hand.

A lot of things have changed since those days of political volatility in the late 1990s. Mr Karunanidhi’s job, in comparison to Mr Naidu’s, is more that of an interlocutor. The power centres in the UPA regime are Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s residence 10, Janpath and CPM Headquarters AK Gopalan Bhavan. Mr Karunanidhi is mediating for the first time between the Congress and the Left since the government came to power. And the Left is in no mood to tamper with the stability of the government.

But all the trappings of the power game have been visible at TN Bhavan. One of those supposed to be in the fray, Mr Karan Singh, called on Mr Karunanidhi on Friday afternoon. He was followed by the third most powerful individual in the UPA, Mr Ahmed Patel (Ms Gandhi and the PM being the first two).

Left leader Prakash Karat, AB Bardhan and D Raja had a breakfast meeting with him. In between, Mr Karunanidhi drove to 7, Race Course Road to meet the PM and Ms Gandhi. In the evening, the UPA had a co-ordination meeting to discuss a new candidate who emerged from the day’s talks.

The appearance of an unlikely name from the discussions and bargaining at TN House is still not as dramatic as the episode at Andhra Bhavan where Mr Mulayam Singh was dropped after being chosen as the UF’s prime ministerial candidate.

However, much like Mr IK Gujral made it as PM by fluke after the SP leader was blocked by Mr Lalu Yadav and Mr Sharad Yadav, it is now likely that Rajasthan Governor Ms Pratibha Patil could find herself as India’s first woman president riding on pure chance. Mr Shivraj Patil and a few others would have reasons to find solace in history.