Regional equations

The death of the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, YS Rajasekhara Reddy, has left the Congress leadership in a dilemma. But beyond the issue of whether or not to anoint his son as heir is the larger challenge of how to accommodate regional leaders in a party where the locus of power lies at the apex.

This was not the situation till the Congress split of 1969 when prime minister Indira Gandhi took over control of the party and then of the country at large. By 1972, the issue seemed to have been settled. The manner in which chief ministers were chosen also underwent a shift with the high command simply nominating the leaders.

The Congress’s own reading of the past is that only a strong central leadership can hold it together. Regional satraps who were pillars of support in the years it was ensconced in power turned out to have feet of clay when the tide turned. Kamaraj was humbled at the hustings in 1967, but Indira Gandhi stayed on to fight and got her party a huge majority in 1971.

Things had gone so far down the road that in 1980 the Congress legislative party in Uttar Pradesh passed a resolution that Sanjay Gandhi be made chief minister. But aware that the PM’s own views were unknown, it added a proviso that she could depute anyone else that she chose. They gave her a blank cheque.

Yet, the party that Sonia Gandhi took over in 1998 was a shadow of the force it had been in the 1970s and 80s. Not only had it lost out in terms of vote share and support base, it lacked strong leaders at the state level.

YSR was among those who gained enormously from the support of the new Congress president. She also stuck by him though the party failed to win back power in 1999. In the long run, the relationship was mutually beneficial.

Earlier this year, the Congress not only took on and defeated the Telugu Desam party, it also withstood the challenge of the Telangana nationalists and the Left who had aligned with it only five years ago.

YS Rajasekhara Reddy was in the mould of a regional strongman, one who ran a tight ship with a clear line of command. In turn, he placed emphasis on issues regional politicians once regarded as central but had neglected of late.

Yet, he was exceptional within the party. There is no equivalent figure in the Congress ranks in any other state. For why this is so, it is again essential to go back to the Indira period. She faced strong challengers from the state level when her fortunes ebbed in the late 70s. Devaraj Urs in Karnataka and Vasantdada Patil in Maharashtra broke ranks with her.

As a consequence, she was loath to let regional leaders grow. Sharad Pawar only managed to return to his parent party after her death, and then he never managed to consolidate his hold on the entire state unit. Nor has Congress ever allowed any leader of stature to emerge ever since. Even Narayan Rane who joined after leaving the Shiv Sena has been checkmated.

For a while it had appeared that Digvijay Singh of Madhya Pradesh would emerge as a key power centre. But the scale and extent of his defeat in 2003 put paid to any such hopes. He has since played a role in the party but is marginal to statecraft.

YSR’s equation with Sonia had an element of trust because he knew and recognised the limits of his ambition. Unlike regional strongmen of the past, he did not aspire for a larger role on the national stage. In a party where his state got in as many as 33 MPs to the Lok Sabha, his loyalty was an asset.

But the aftermath is a different matter. Congress’s problem is accentuated by the fact that its win in the state was narrower than it seems. The new fledgling outfit of filmstar Chiranjeevi divided Opposition votes. Despite the wave that swept it back to power, the party cannot under estimate N Chandrababu Naidu.

Dissension in the ruling party will enable him to move to centrestage again. In the prelude to the return to power of his Telugu Desam Party in 1994, the Congress had experimented with as many as three chief ministers in five years. This situation was tailor made for a strong regional party to take advantage of.

The Congress is in a piquant situation for it is not in power in most of the major states. It still banks on the reach and appeal of its national leaders but this does not always work at the state level.

Even as Rahul Gandhi in his Tamil Nadu tour talks of inducting fresh blood into the party, it lacks avenues for young and ambitious leaders to grow. More than who succeeds the gaddi in Hyderabad it is this challenge that needs to be faced head on.

The writer is a commentator on political affairs