Party hopping: Meet the other Sultans of Swing

What would happen if, one day, trapeze artistes collectively decided that circuses could do without them? Simple. There''d be no circus.
Yet, recently our neta-log voted - hopefully only in a temporary fit of insanity - to rid politics of its staple fare: Defection.
Would anything be left of the mega theatre of Indian politics if no Aya Ram can contemplate becoming a Gaya Ram? But maybe there''s hope yet.Look at it this way.
There is no bar on defecting parties, which means that in place of party hopping we could have hopping parties. In the season of swings, the neta can take his captive flock where he wants - to the Congress, to the BJP to the Third Front, never mind ideology and the like.
From left to right, secular to saffron, Bollywood to Pollywood, what is an election without defection? Here then is a tribute to some of the gymnasts whose acrobatics on the party circuit made politics the entertainer it was.
Ajit Singh
This unlikely inheritor of Chowdhary Charan Singh''s vast Jat constituency has enacted the unite, split and reunite drill so often that it would be a wonder if he were to find a party that he hasn''t already joined, left and rejoined.
From Lok Dal (A) to Janata Dal to National Front to Congress to United Front to Bharatiya Kisan Kamgar party to National Democratic Alliance to Rasht-riya Lok Dal to an alliance now with the Samajwadi Party - he has traversed the spectrum from end to end.
And for nothing it would seem, considering Charan Singh''s US-returned, computer-trained son has ended up in the arms of his worst enemy: Mulayam Singh Yadav. In its time, the Ajit-Mulayam rivalry was as legendary as today''s Mayawati-Mulayam enmity.
Unlike Maya, though, Ajit has had to swallow his pride and sue for peace. Moral of the story: When you are a frequent traveller like Ajit, you can hardly be fussy about who you travel with or where you stop next.
Mulayam Singh Yadav
The little man started out as a wrestler, a training that has stood him in good stead in politics. Yet, it would be unfair to judge his defection record only in terms of the mileage covered.
Of course, he has done his share of partying: from Samyukta Socialist Party to Lok Dal B to Janata Dal to National Front to Samajwadi Janata Party to SP to United Front.
This Lohia socialist has switched loyalties from Charan Singh to Bah-uguna to Devi Lal to V P Singh to Chandrasekhar. However, to get his true worth, you''d have to measure the ideological distance Mulayam has travelled from his Mandal-Maulana days.
Yesteryear''s Mulayam wore his backward caste identity on his sleeve, made a fetish of secularism and was anti-elitist. The post-Amar Singh Mulayam is the picture of diplomacy, as much at ease in the Sangh Parivar as in the Sahara parivar.
From social backwardness to socialite connections, from anti-English campaigns to the sizzling world of corporate glamour, it has been an amazing journey for the iron man who once defined Mandal and defended the Masjid.
Sharad Pawar
Ever the ''will he, won''t he'' man, Pawar is the dodgy defector. In his youth, though, Pawar was something of a daredevil. When only 37, he pulled down the government headed by the iconic Vasantdada Patil and became Maharashtra''s youngest CM.
Pawar''s periods of exile were marked by a longish stint in the Progressive Democratic Front and then in the Congress (Socialist). Pawar returned to the Congress in 1986, but in the role of the eternal suspect.
The man was ever on the verge of leaving, whether he was with Rajiv Gandhi or with Narasimha Rao. If he had an uneasy relationship with Rajiv, he openly confronted Rao, going as far as to challenge him for the PM''s post.
But it was always one step forward and two steps backward. In the end, he did drop the bombshell, but his target was not Rajiv or Rao but the videshi Sonia.
Pawar''s NCP, which was born in opposition to Sonia, quite happily aligned with her. Today, the NCP is in tatters, its anti-Sonia tilt has untilted and it may be just a small step before the ''Nationalist'' part of the NCP drops out of sight.
Kalyan Singh
For long, Kalyan Singh''s favourite one-liner was that when he died, his body would go out in glory, wrapped in the BJP flag: "Meri jaan BJP mein hai". Today, he might well say that since his ''jaan'' stayed back in the BJP, he has returned to reclaim it.
Kalyan Singh''s journeys outside of the Sangh fold may not have been quite as spectacular as those of his more enterprising contemporaries, but for sheer verbal somersaults he would be hard to beat.
Kalyan was the hero of Ayodhya.
Remember his fabulous martyr act after the Masjid was brought down by the goon squad? Kalyan was so proudly saffron he went to prison for the cause.
But no sooner was he out of the BJP than the demolition transmogrified in his imagination into a conspiracy hat-ched by BJP''s bosses.
Kalyan''s views on Atalji are a similar exercise in acrobatics: "I''ll rip off the mask of moderation he wears," he swore not long ago. Today, Atalji is the saviour of the country, the BJP and, oh yes, Kalyan himself.