Sonia Gandhi. File Picture

New Delhi, July 4: Suddenly shut out of the power equation and roundly snubbed by a partner that has switched consorts before formal divorce, the CPM must wonder what it is about the strange alchemy of the Congress and the Samajwadi Party that leaves it singed time after time.

Nine years ago, when Sonia Gandhi was stood up as April’s great fool on the forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan, famously claiming a majority of “272” when she had only a minority of 252, the real humiliation had been general secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet’s.

Intent on keeping the BJP out of power, the tireless CPM boss had undertaken a fanatical — and he thought successful — mission to sew up the numbers behind Sonia. But Mulayam Singh Yadav turned all his wiles to woe, vowing support to him in the backrooms and vacating it unabashedly on live television.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee rode to office on that betrayal.

Sonia rode home basking in the consolation of victimhood.

A stunned Surjeet, who had neither power nor glory to gain from his efforts, could do no more than flail he’d been taken for a ride. The buzzing open-house at the Surjeet home in Teen Murti Lane was sullen and shut that evening.

“Sorry” is all he was prepared to say. “Sorry but I have nothing to say.”

Mulayam Singh Yadav after meeting Manmohan Singh on Friday. (AP)

Today, as the Congress’s top in tandem entreated the Samajwadis — Manmohan Singh and Sonia playing separate hosts to Mulayam and Amar Singh — the CPM again bore the wounds of collateral damage.

Nine years ago, it was about the Samajwadis slipping away from the Congress despite promise and persuasion. Today, it was about the Samajwadis getting stuck to the Congress despite all dissuasion.

The ironies of the emerging compact between the Congress and the Samajwadi Party can’t escape too many; for CPM general secretary Prakash Karat, they must have an added bitter ring as he mulls the overnight turn in fortunes from being power behind the throne to being thrown into irrelevance in the UPA’s scheme of things.

Nowhere did ironies resound as tellingly as in that stray rhetorical jab Amar flung at journalists: “But why should Comrade Karat be upset? He is the one who has been wanting us to be with the Congress all this while.”

That the Samajwadis should have shaken hands with the Congress over a chasm through which the Left has fallen is itself a quirk of realpolitik. Mutual interest, and little else, has driven the Congress and the Samajwadi Party to reverse a relationship that’s mostly been about insult and invective.

Mulayam Singh Yadav with CPM leaders Jyoti Basu and Harkishen Singh Surjeet in New Delhi in 2000

The Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections were a no-holds-barred slanging match between Sonia and Mulayam, Rahul and Amar. It wound down perhaps only because Mayavati ran away with the prize and suddenly there was no Mulayam-Amar “criminal raj” in Uttar Pradesh to rail against.

And even so, even after Uttar Pradesh had been lost by both, there was little that seemed to settle between the two. If nothing else, there was enduring fuel of that “personal affront” that kept relations febrile.

As the UPA celebrated victory against the run of play in May 2004, Surjeet — again him, the unlearning enthusiast of anti-BJP concord — dragged Amar along to a soiree at 10 Janpath. Never mind that you haven’t a personal invitation, I’m there.

Surjeet may not have minded, but Sonia did. Amar was made to cool his heels in the outhouse where the invited guests filed in.

It was a slight Amar would never forget, or so it seemed till this afternoon when the unwelcome gatecrasher of 2004 became the courted saviour at 10 Janpath.

The thought may have occurred to a sardonic few that Surjeet wasn’t around as Sonia welcomed Amar into her study. And successor Karat had verily been cast away. Somehow, the CPM doesn’t become the Congress-Samajwadi alchemy.

THEN AND NOW

The twists and turns in Mulayam Singh Yadav’s ties with the Congress under Sonia Gandhi

THE LOW POINT

Mulayam blocks Sonia’s attempt to form a “secular” govt in April 1999, making Samajwadi Party an enemy of Congress

THE SNUB

Amar Singh goes uninvited to UPA dinner at Sonia’s place in May 2004 and is given cold
shoulder

THE MUD

Amar alleges in late 2005 and early 2006 that his phone is being tapped

THE B FACTOR

Amitabh Bachchan, Amar’s “older brother”, gets sucked into controversies over income-tax dues and land purchases. Wife Jaya caught in office-of-profit row

THE ICE-BREAKER

Mulayam’s son Akhilesh and Amar invited to PM’s dinner for UPA and allies in August 2006. Amar seated at Shivraj Patil’s table

THE BOND THICKENS

Mulayam defends Rahul’s visits to Dalit homes in April 2008, asks why Mayavati has a problem. Amar chairs panel discussion at Rajiv Gandhi Foundation

THE HIGH TABLE

Amar attends PM’s annual dinner for UPA and allies in May. Is given a place at PM’s
table. Speaks of his“high regard” for Manmohan and says he has no problem with Sonia

THE LOUD HINT

Mulayam refuses to attack Congress on Emergency anniversary in June. Party drops
hints it could bail out govt on N-deal

THE VISIT

Mulayam and Amar call on Manmohan and Sonia