Kannoth  Karunakaran, the one time strongman of Kerala politics, is down and out. With the Left Democratic Front led by CPI(M) showing red flag to the merger of his Democratic Indira Congress   Karunakaran (DICK) with the Nationalist  Congress Party (NCP) led by Sharad Pawar, columnists are busy writing the political obituary of  Karunakaran and his very ambitious son K Muraleedharan.

Of late, the father-son duo is the butt of jokes in Kerala politics. Karunakaran is being compared to Dhritharashtra of Mahabharat whose only obsession was to ensure the coronation of his wayward son Duryodhana. People see many similarities between Duryodhana and Muraleedharan. The only missing link is the absence of a Karna in the Karunakaran clan.

Though it is almost certain that Karunakaran's political outfit will merge with Pawar's NCP in November, chances are that the new entity will face a sudden demise. This is because of the   fact that Karunakaran's only interest lies in the ensconcing of his son Muraleedharan in a safe and secured place in the state politics. Neither the state leadership of NCP nor the second wrung chieftains of DICK approve of the feudal style functioning of Muraleedharan.

Karunakaran who floated the DICK after breaking his six- decade-long relation with the Congress found himself in a no-man's land following the decision of the CPI(M) to dump him. The present leadership of the Congress prefers to keep the father-son duo at a safe distance. It was the group rivalry initiated by Karunakaran which had culminated in his exit from the Congress along with some local satraps.

Though Karunakaran had a strategic tie up with the LDF for the elections to the local bodies in 2005, the   central leadership of the CPI (M) shattered his plans to enter the LDF. As a face-saving tactic, Karunakaran and Muraleedharan had to pitch in with the Congress-led UDF for the May 2006 Assembly election. The Karunakaran faction which used to be allotted 40-45 seats by the Congress High Command in the previous Assembly elections had to be content with just nine seats in the 2006 election. All except one lost.

The Congress High Command had deputed Veerappa Moily, the Karnataka leader to sort out the issues in the Kerala unit of the party and to mollify Karunakaran. Moily, known for his closeness to Karunakaran, tried to impress upon the old fox it would be suicidal to persist with his outfit that did not have any moorings in the state. It was finally agreed to merge DICK with the Congress immediately after the Assembly election.   But with the UDF and DICK coming a cropper, there erupted a blame game between the two. Oommen Chandi,    who led the UDF in the election, put the blame on Karunakaran for the failure. This led to an exchange of words between Congress and DICK.  Both Muraleedharan and KPCC President Ramesh Chennithala had signed an agreement during the run-up to the assembly election that the DICK would merge with the Congress  immediately after the election.

It was reported that Pinarayi Vijayan, the CPI (M) state secretary, and his cohorts were in favour of admitting the Karunakaran clan in the LDF. But V S Achuthanandan, Vijayan's bete noire, could impress upon the politburo about the danger in that experiment. Adding to the discomfort of Karunakaran,  the CPI, the second largest party in the LDF,  came out openly against having any truck with the former chief minister.

But Karunakaran, known as 'Leader' among friends (though enemies call him 'Dealer' because of his behind-the-curtain activities), is still hopeful of making it to the LDF. He has abstained from making any criticism against the faction led by Pinarayi Vijayan in the CPI (M). In fact, he does not miss an opportunity to praise Vijayan. Also, the latter's close confidents Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, M A Baby and Thomas Issac maintain their strong relations with Karunakaran.

Though Karunakaran was the top-most anti-Communist in Kerala, he has understood the possibilities and the potential of having an alliance with the Reds. "Even the Madamma (the Malayalam word to denote the European woman, Sonia Gandhi) is dependent on the Communists for her survival. So what is wrong in me having an alliance with the Communists?" Karunakaran is reported to have asked his aides.

Congress, as a party, is in shambles in Kerala thanks to the factional feuds encouraged and funded by Karunakaran. He never wanted anybody in the party to pose a challenge to him. As part of this divide and rule policy, he effectively used one generation of leaders against the other and that ended up as major factional war. The party got weakened while letter-head organizations like the Muslim League, various factions of the Kerala Congress etc flourished. Communalism has become the hallmark of the state thanks to the appeasement policies initiated by Karunakaran.

"After me, deluge", was the style he has followed, while development activities and industrialization became stagnant in the state. Corruption and nepotism were the major industries which flourished in the state during Karunakaran's tenure as chief minister. The state is yet to get modern roads. The 200 km train journey between Thiruvananthapuram, the capital city, and Kochi, the financial capital of the state, takes nearly six hours thanks to the absence of double tracks. Though the state boasts of many rivers, any failure in the monsoon could trigger a power crisis.

No, this is not an attempt to blame Karunakaran for all the ills plaguing Kerala. As a chief minister and senior leader, he failed miserably in giving any momentum to the development of the state. And he failed to see the writing on the wall that it was time to consign his style of politics to the museum of political antiquity. At the age of 86 when all men retire gracefully  from social life and devote their time  to inspire memoirs, Karunakaran is busy finding a political mooring for his son Muraleedharan, said to be among the richest in the state.