The trust vote is done and the government is safe, at least for the next few months. New political alignments are in the making. But the Left, which triggered this tortuous political churn by withdrawing support to the government, seems to have lost the plot in the process. The first shock came when Somnath Chatterjee, elected on a CPM ticket, refused to obey party diktat to quit the post of the Speaker. Now Chatterjee, a 10-time MP and a close associate of Jyoti Basu, has been expelled, interestingly a day after he presided admirably over the trust vote.

Chatterjee's defiance, despite pointed references by the CPM leadership, didn't trigger a rebellion in the party, but his solo act was surely an indication of the restlessness in the CPM over the decision to vote with the BJP against the government. It is unlikely that Chatterjee will become a magnet for dissent in the CPM. He is not a quintessential CPM man and that probably explains his sense of independence as an individual and a politician. Sure, the party wanted him to quit his post but Chatterjee felt that the office of the Speaker was above party interests and he needed to uphold its dignity by refusing to accept the party's ruling ahead of a crucial session of Parliament. But for the CPM, Chatterjee, the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, didn't matter; it merely saw his refusal to resign as a cadre's defiance of the party. And the party, as we know, can do no wrong.

Ideology may have triumphed when the Left pulled out of the UPA-Left coalition on the nuclear deal issue. But did the Left leaders have an inkling that they will be forced to prop up Mayawati as a prime ministerial candidate and share a platform with politicians like Chandrababu Naidu and Deve Gowda? Do these leaders practise or even agree with the Left's distinction between secular and communal parties, anti-Americanism or socialist pattern of development?

However, the CPM can't ignore the ground realities and face political isolation. CPM ministers in West Bengal have said that nuclear energy, like investment from companies in the US, is a must for industrialisation. The party is also in favour of special economic zones where labour laws are relaxed in favour of investors. Here, the party has taken a cue from China, which has embarked on a capitalist expansion of its economy. After all,
political parties have to evolve with the changing times. That's also the message in Chatterjee's seeming defiance of party diktat.