In February 1982, then Congress general secretary Rajiv Gandhi arrived at Hyderabad’s Begumpet airport on a personal visit. In order to welcome the all-powerful Gandhi scion, Congress’ Andhra Pradesh chief minister at the time Tanguturi Anjaiah had arranged for a grand reception. State cabinet ministers of the time as well as their supporters thronged the airport terminal so much so that many were able to reach the airport’s tarmac, bypassing the security norms.
However, the pompous arrangement and uncontrolled ecstatic crowd irked Rajiv Gandhi. According to an India Today report of the time, an angry Rajiv allegedly told the chief minister, “If there is no order and the whole thing is not over in 15 minutes I will go back.” Further, Gandhi reportedly said, “We are interested in seeing the work done by the party and not in counting the number of welcome arches erected.”
This public rebuke and humiliation in the midst of his supporters left Anjaiah in tears. Later the chief minister said it was just “misunderstanding” that led to the episode. Back in Delhi Rajiv convinced Indira Gandhi to sack Anjaiah.
However, N.T Rama Rao, already famous by the time, was quick to weaponise the “insult” issue. Around a month later on March 21, 1982, Rama Rao launched the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) on the slogan of “Telugu Atma Gauravam” or Telugu self-pride.
In the Assembly polls next year, the TDP stormed to power in the state. Congress tally plummeted from 175 seats in 1978 to just 60 in the 294-member house. The state politics turned bipolar with the Congress’ lone running since Independence coming to an abrupt end.
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The Jagan Chapter
The script with some modifications was repeated again with another political satrap in the same state—Andhra Pradesh. In September 2009, the sudden demise of Congress chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy or YSR in a helicopter crash pushed the state towards a political turmoil. YSR at the time was into his second term as CM.
A close confidante of Sonia Gandhi, YSR had almost single-handedly ended party’s 10-year political vanwaas in the state in May 2004 when the Congress romped home with 185 of the 234 seats it had contested. Party’s vote share in seats it contested went up to 49.10 per cent.
YSR’s untimely demise gave a reality check to the Reddy family, especially his son Jagan Mohan Reddy. Jagan, 36 at the time, was not just declined his father’s post as his successor but also ignored for any responsible position in the Congress party. Disappointed and snubbed, Jagan undertook ‘Odarpu Yatra’—a statewide tour supposedly to comfort the families that had lost members to ‘death by shock’ following YSR’s demise.
The massive response Jagan’s tour received from the public rankled the Congress’ top leadership. Jagan was asked to put a break on his yatra. Later in November 2010, Jagan quit the Congress and also resigned as party MP from Kadapa to chart his own political future.
What came next is a tale of trial and tribulations for the Reddy family at the hands of central agencies. Jagan suffered 16-month incarceration in a corruption case. Nine years later in May 2019, Jagan took revenge in style with YSR Congress Party winning 151 of the state’s 175 Assembly seats.
Jagan’s party not just ended the 5-year rule of the Telugu Desam Party but also relegated the Congress to zero seats, its worst performance ever in the state. The scale of the Congress’ humiliation could be understood from the fact NOTA (none of the above) secured more votes than the Congress party. While Congress polled 3.69 lakh votes, over 4 lakh people pressed the NOTA button. The Lok Sabha polls which were conducted simultaneously too failed to alleviate the Congress’ electoral disappointment. The party scored a duck with just 1.3 per cent votes while 1.5 per cent votes went to NOTA in the parliamentary polls. Jagan effectively held the mirror up to the grand old party.
No Lessons Learnt
It was expected the Congress leadership would mend its ways while dealing with regional satraps but nothing changed. In 2015, then three-term Assam MLA Himanta Biswa Sarma quit the Congress after a major fallout with both party’s central and state leadership. Later, Sarma recalling his meeting with Rahul Gandhi said the Gandhi scion paid more attention to his dog than listening to “urgent Assam issues”.
Standing under the BJP umbrella, a humiliated Sarma took revenge in 2016 when the saffron party trounced the Congress in the Assam Assembly polls. The Congress’ tally came down to just 26 seats from 78 the party had won in 2011, in the 126-member Legislative Assembly.
Experts say the unceremonious sacking of two-term CM Captain Amarinder Singh in Punjab recently shows that the Congress leadership has failed to learn any lesson from its own history.
The treatment meted out to Captain and the resulting rebellion, experts argue, may cost the Congress dearly in the upcoming Assembly polls in “proud” Punjab. The Congress high command’s ingratitude to a seasoned and popular politician who single-handedly won them the state in 2017 could alienate a section of Jat-Sikhs, the community to which Captain belongs.
With Captain announcing his adieu to the grand old party and opening a fierce front against Gandhis’ favourite Navjot Singh Sidhu, the going will get tougher for the Congress. Besides, Captain’s removal has also provided a resurgent Aam Aadmi Party with a potent ‘humiliation’ narrative to hurt the Congress’ chances in the border state.
Ripples of Punjab have also reached Delhi with disgruntled G-23 leaders openly questioning Punjab fiasco. Besides, it may also encourage other ‘sidelined’ leaders to follow suit while making ‘old guards’ nervous, experts argue.
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