IN MANY Indian households, it is the men who call the shots.

So it would seem ironic that the focus falls on three women politicians as election date approaches.

One of the three Power Madams – Mrs Sonia Gandhi, Ms Mayawati and Ms Jayalalithaa – will decide India’s destiny once the polls are over.

All are fiercely independent, highly ambitious and have their gaze on Delhi.

Ms Mayawati has made no secret of her ambitions.

She wants to be India’s next prime minister and has been working hard to make that happen. Her Bahujan Samaj Party is likely to field candidates in all constituencies to give her party an all-India exposure.

Tamil Nadu’s opposition leader Jayalalithaa harbours similiar thoughts of occupying the PM’s chair but she is likely to place her cards on the table after the results are out.

That is when she will play kingmaker and demand her pound of flesh.

Mrs Gandhi has made it known that she does not want to be prime minister.

That job will go to Manmohan Singh if her party wins.

She knows well that she will be the power behind the throne if the Congress can stitch together a viable coalition.

The elections will, of course, see the men making the customary fiery speeches and promises.

However, all eyes this time around will be on these three women.

Why? No single party is likely to win the 272 seats needed to form the next government.

In which case a coalition government will be needed and only one among these three women can make it happen.

Power Madam Sonia Gandhi

HER opponents may be a bit tired of her. Whatever they throw at her does not stick.

Photo:Madam Sonia Gandhi (AFP)

Five years ago, when she won by a huge margin from Rae Bareli and the coalition that her Congress party stitched together got to form the government, they hurled various charges.

They first picked on her foreign origins.

Then they tried the religious card.

Mrs Sonia Gandhi was born a Catholic in Italy.

How can such a woman lead India was their poser.

But Mrs Gandhi was smarter.

She announced that she was not interested in becoming PM and it took the wind out of the opposition’s sails.

Since then respect for the Congress president has grown.

Some see shades of the no-nonsense, ruthless ways of her mother-in-law, the late Mrs Indira Gandhi, in her.

Just look at what she did to give coalition partners Lalu Prasad Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan the shivers.

When the two teamed up to leave only three seats for the Congress out of the 40 in Bihar, the Congress instead of pleading for more announced it was contesting 37 seats.

A red-faced Lalu is now even willing to campaign for the Congress in neighbouring UP!

In West Bengal, Mrs Gandhi has managed to win over Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee to counter the Communists. Yet, she has not shut the door on the Left.

When the media asked her about a possible alliance with the Left after the polls, all she would say was: “Let us see. Let us go through the elections.”

Power Madam Jayalalithaa

LARGER-than-life cut-outs of AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa grace the streets of Chennai. If she has her way, soon we may see such cut-outs in New Delhi. That is, if she manages to become PM.

Photo: Madam Jayalalithaa (AIDMK OFFICE)

Sceptics might ask how this shrewd politician with a powerbase restricted to Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry can make an attempt to snatch the throne in New Delhi?

She has been in the wilderness for the past five years and she is hungry for power.

She made an attempt to court the Congress, a party that she has been badmouthing all these years.

“Ditch the DMK,” was her advice. If the Congress had fallen for her, then it would have meant killing two birds with one stone for her.

She would have given the DMK a drubbing in the polls and then would have an opportunity to place her demands before the Congress if its coalition were to come to power.

What are her options now? The Third Front has claimed her support but she was a notable absentee when Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati held a dinner for front members.

When the media queried about it she dismissed it saying: “There was a communication gap, that’s all.”

When a reporter spoke about expectations that a person of her calibre and experience should be the prime ministerial candidate, she said, “I don’t want to comment on that.”

Ms Jayalalithaa is too clever a politician to remain a silent partner if the Third Front musters enough seats to form the government.

If she does not get what she wants, she will not hesitate to switch camps.

Power Madam Mayawati

SHE feels her time has come. A time she has been meticulously planning for.

Photo: Madam Mayawati (AFP)

The past few years have seen Ms Mayawati travel the length and breadth of India, wooing voters and garnering people to represent her Bahujan Samaj Party come election time.

Now that time has come and the firebrand politician, who claims to be the champion of India’s oppressed and the poor, says she is ready to be prime minister.

She has promised to field candidates in each of India’s 543 constituencies. She wants to battle the polls without any tie-up with other parties.

Those parties will need her more once the polls are over and that is when she will make her move.

She is a Dalit and has been championing their cause. At the same time she has managed to win over a sizeable chunk of the high-caste Brahmins.

Of the 80 seats in her home state Uttar Pradesh, 20 have been given to Brahmins as against 17 for Dalits.

She has been drawing huge crowds wherever she goes.

Trying to prove that she has pan-India appeal, she launched her poll campaign from the deep south in Kerala.

If she can win around 50 seats in UP alone, she stands a good chance to claim the PM’s chair.

Ms Mayawati wants to deny the Congress and the BJP from forming the government and this what several other parties want too.

These smaller power-hungry entities could well give her the muscle to march to New Delhi after May 16.