S a ha~ahsummer sun begins to provide Sanjay the springboard for firlure easy to exagycrate its tempo. but Mrs roast the Indian plains. and a action. Political fortunes in India have Gandhi and Sanjay are working in tandem pall of to~por descends upon traditionally turned on the power of patro- to induct hordes of young loyalists who will nage. pivc them'lhe unquestioned powcr the old old ~nernber of the Lok Sabha is The Assembly elections are an oppor- yard consistently failed to sustain. 11 r~h~llilrvber~ng up for a carefully planned tune moment to disperse burgeoning armies Dislodging Governments: Sari-lay's emer- t exelclse The prevd~l~nglethargy of the of loyal lieutenants into top jobs in state gence has been neill-rer SIOIY 1101- halting. wmmer ~111be arenchcd as~denext fort- cabinets and administrations. As architect Ruling par-ty leaders loday make no pretence n~yhtas Sdnjay Gandh~.the most powerful of the election and delegator of authority. of the fact that he was instrumental in ot MPs. rn'~l\es d perfectly tuned spr~nt Sanjay is ensuring his own political power engineering his mother's return to power. to~fdtdsthecockp~t of power base for the future. Having had to lean on his "YOLImust understand." says Delhi MP A\ nc'lr ly 16.000 local pol~tic~ansjostle mother's unquestioned authority, he has Jagdish Tytler. a close associate. "that ~a\enou 34 INDIATODAY. MAY 16-31. 1980 blishing a new network of youth power. been actix-el? illvolved in the Youth Congress- close to her-and therefore by proxy to him. Sanjay Gandhi is indeed making political (I). Between 8.5 and 95 per cent of candidates Kamlapati Tripathi. is reported to have history. The process bepn soon after MI-s Iin\ ccn~~rtetlarrc\( vainst "Janata's persecu- remarked: "If you want to protect India. Gandhi assnmed ofice as prin~eminister. {inn (>I. h11.y G;~ndl~iand Sn~i-i;iy"during tlie you have to protect Congress (I). A# to Pre INDIA TODAY. MAY 16-31 1480 35 rise to politics in 1975-76, he suffered a serious setback in 1977. By 1979 Sanjay was no longer politically irrelevant, with ruling kingmakers li&e Raj Narain and Biju Patnaik virtually eating out of his hand. Sanjay emerged as a master strategist. With the triumphant success in the parliamentary poll behind him, he is in a position to root himself in the states. Nor is he applying any of the radical rhetoric that characterised Mrs Gandhi's block- busting election planks. He avoids the ideolo- gical trappings of the left or right, taking a pragmatic if openly opportunistic middle road. He remains reticent about expounding his political philosophy, but his lieutenants are more forthcoming. Says Ramchandra Rath: "Since the 1969 split, the Congress(1) has become a definitive, ~deologically-oriented by the centrifugal force of its leader. Just as daughter. In the elections the following year party. Today there are no groups like 1 Mrs Gandhi eliminated the regional satraps her party suffered a setback and she was socialists, communists and capitalists. We who separately paid homage to her father, under attack. But in 1969, she made her are all Congressmen." Says Tytler: "As her son seems to be furthering the centralisa- crucial break with the old bosses of the soon as the elections are over, I'll answer for 1 tion of power. The last regional leader who Congress "syndicate," and proved a runaway things not being put right." betrayed unforgivable individuality under success. Aligning with the leftists, she used The concept of dyed-in-the-wool Mrs Gandhi was Devraj Urs-and he paid their radical, no-holds-barred tactics to shock Congressmen may not appear workable heavily for it. the old and put herself on the road to power. in the long run. If powerbrokers like Hem- 1 Crucial Break: Mrs Gandhi burst on the A similar chronological parallel can be uati Nandan Bahuguna and Mohanlal I strength of her being Jawaharlal Nehru's drawn in Sanjay's case: Following his sudden Sukhadia had to be initially accommodated Ticket To Wide rkers wherever they uld put their head own, was a simple "You must be inkin'g everyone d G. Poongava- INDIA TODAY. MAY 16-31, 1980 because of the uncertainty of the senior leadership over success at the polls their power is not tolerated today. Eventually, the disgruntled become dissenters. This is likely to happen both at the Centre and in the states (see box). Final Arbiters: But the emerging leader- ship in the Congress (I) is accustomed to other values. In the absence of organisational elections since the '60s, a grassroots set-up in the old-fashioned political method has been thrown to the winds. Appointments to state and district-level committees are controlled by the Party's central leadership and, more significantly, the recent nominations to the Assembly elections were made directly by the Central Parliamentary Board. The state election committees were in most Triparlli, Bahuguna and Sukhadia: the old order cllangcth cases bypassed. The state committees were rendered useless-despite the lists they sent ming in the houses of MPs they fought like Finally, he made all the faction leaders sit in-because as one member put it: "Sanjay cats for the spoils. With approximately 20 together and at the end of a marathon eight- and his men were the final arbiters." Orissa serious contenders for every seat, jail certifi- hour session cleared the whole list. was perhaps the only exception, being in the cates ensuring their antecedents were flying Even so. Ram Lal had to contend grip of Ramchandra Rath, the Youth Cong- about everywhere. Himachal Pradesh Chief with the supreme command which placed ress (I) president who is close to Sanjay. Minister Ram Lal, a trusted party manager other checks on him. One was a figure who was active in Rae Bareli, had to contend called Rajesh Pilot, a former air force S the state committee members moved with over 10,000 applicants for Uttar Pradesh. officer now an MP, who took stock of the to Delhi or the final arbitration, so did He went about the job systematically, gather- situation in western Uttar Pradesh. A the hundreds of ticket-seekers. Slum- ing information about as many as he could. T. Anjiah, a trusted MP from Andhra -- Bad Name: Soon after this the 'molasses never tire of citing the examples of MLAs who within years of becoming ministers sittings are usually pocket that, pocket whatever you can. one of hls colleagues: "He became the s are not ~n session Then came the ayu Ram-gaya Ram Minister for Industry for just one year. At the ve their daily allow- phase which didn't enhance the prestige of end of ~the had eight houses in Saharsa town, year. Gaps of three state legislators. At a high pitch in the '60s 50 per cent share in a cinema hall, a Factory in ittings don't disaIlow it showed that MLAs were willing to switch Santhal Pargana, and a Rs 20-lakh loan from parties -provided the price was right. "But the Industrlai Development Corporation. ------INDIA TODAY MAY 16-31. 1980 37 Pradesh. played Ram Lal's role in son are among those partaking of the largesse. Bihar. In Rajasthan. Union Minister of But this came in handy for the leadership too. State Ihl- Finance. Jagannath Pahadia fina- Having obliged the relations of the senior lised the list. A. P. Sharma took charge of leaders thev refused tickets to their followers Madhya Pradesh. Yogendra Makwana of and the bosses could not complain about the Gujarar. and industrialist-MP Kamal Natli of onslaught on their bases. Among the nomi- Maharashtra. P. C. Sethi was meant to nees are the two hijackers who took over an have taken chaqc of finalising the list Indian Airlines flight from Lucknow to in Tamil Nadu but because of his wayward Varanasi in December 1978 to protest against beha\.iour he had perforce to be replaced Mrs Gandhi's arrest. by I(. Moop;urar, former state party Presiding Deity: If segments of the chief. nomination list resemble a joint family, then Family Connections: An extraordinary what of the preqiding deity himself? Sanjay's feature ol distribution of tickets was the main aim in organising and conducting the way in which all leaders were embroiled coming election is to formalise his own in a war of direct succession. A number position. Among his followers, those who of the successf~~lnominees came to resemble have bent backwards to suggest future roles an extension of the joint family system. for him have recommended, among other In some cases. the family connection was things, that he should be made deputy prime taken to absurd iengths. In Punjab, for minister. Sumanlata Dixit, a doe-eyed Youth example, there were more relatives of promi- Congress (I) general secretary in UP is equally nent leaders than constituencies. Amrinder emphatic about the job he should take: Singh. a forn~er Patiala prince, now a "We should appeal to Congressmen to Congress(1) MP. proposed the names of accept Sanjay Gandhi as the chief minister, six relatives. including one who attacked because he possesses all the qualities of a Mrs Gandhi in the dissolved Assembly. great leader." h~diroGandl~i: Somr~.liatalarmed at this show of un- But more serious last fortnight was the POLL PROSPECTS The CM NEASY rlr(/j' lii~ hratf.s t11rr1 ,rear cro,i,il.s, lwt in [lie conlples upper reaches of rile ruling party tl7er.e is no cfrarth of aspi- rants who're ready ro p~tttkcirs on the block. The CongwsslI) is uheadv taking its victory at the polls for granl~d,and the queue-zlp for the chief miri istcrs' naddis has .starfed. Tlze anxiety isn't ~?zisplaced.With party politics- and sectional loj~oltic~r-incon~mm~d. ~vorrld- be chief n1ini.ster.s c.ml't take a~i~~tlring,fbr granted. The reason: Thr Co~igrr.ss(I)distri- bution of Assenrh!r tickers has made sure that no siiigle .rtare-lcl'el kc~~rlercan steal a march oil ot1lc~r.snnti clinlb to rhe top on his 01t:ti strengtli. The, hi,? prizrs 11~illbe kept till the last to be kano/c>tlout to those seen to he tho most loyal and us?fi~lto nzotha. and son Gandlii. Orissa politician Kanhu Charan .Tanjay's nlor.nirig darshan :hlrilding a base Lenka. lvho servedusnzinister if7 Bliubaneshirar in the mid-'70s, says: "It is not a fact that hridlttd nepotism, the central leadership proposal made by 46 members of the Kama- chief ministers have been chosen. Mrs Gandhi assigned Jagdisli Tytler to arbitrate over the taka Legislature that Sanjav Gandhi should will ,finally nominat~the chief minister. Till Punjab IisL. be made party president. The plea harked then, everyone has a cl~ance." Rut in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, where back to Mrs Gandhi's own entry into the Lenka hit the mark: Anyone ivho's any- factional lcaders are ~~suallygetting up to political arena in the late '50s when she one is in the r~mninx.But the juggling of more trouble considerable latitude was became president of the Congress. The diferent~factions.corning rtfier large numbers granted to obliging tickets for near and dear demand to see Sanjay as party president of hopefuls were rurneci alvcrj.fiorn Congress- ones. Kamlapati Tripathi's son and son-in- is being echoed by party leaders-only too (I) ticket counters last fortnight, may create law. Rajendra Kumar Bajpai's son, Mohsina eager to prove their loyalty-all over the dissensions. This may influence poll pros- Kidwal's brother-in-law, Saligram Jaiswal's country. Says Kamchandra Rath: "Subhash pects, though it is unlikely that the ruling son and the adviser to the UP Governor, Chandra Bose and Jawaharlal Nehru became party ~cvi// be tripped up on its marclz to Islam .4hnied's son have all got tickets. AICC leaders at a very young age. Sanjay can victory. So have three relatives of Dinesh Singh, who enthuse new blood into the party, so if the A look at the line-up for chief ministers, lately defected to Congress (I). In neighbour- party elects him president, it's perfectly dissensions within the Congress (I) and poll ing Bihar. Union Shipping Minister A.P. democratic. There is nothing wrong with prospects: Sharma's brother, state Congress (I) leader that." Kedar Pandey's wife and Ram Dulari Sinha's INDIA TODAY. MAY 16-31, 1980 state, Kedar Pandey, 56, also a former chief fiture has roused new hopes for the voluble caste candidates Running for the second minister. Pandey is unwillingly in the Lok Sitaram Kesarl, Union minister of state fol place is the BJP followed by the Left front Sabha, and he hasn't taken his eyes off the parliamentary affairs, who clalms cred~tfor and the Lok Dal. Bihar gadd. HIS faction has recelved only first introducing Sanjay to public life. Maharashtra: The highly industrlafked 96 tickets, handicapping him in the chief Bihar too has its share of rebel Congress- state had been a bastlon of the Congress 0 minister's race. Recently. though, both (I) candldates, though the situation IS not as Party and even in the 1978 Assembly election. 0 leaders have Incurred the displeasure of Mrs bad as in Uttar Pradesh. Slowly, the Congres5 the two factions of the Congress were able 2 Gandhi over their handllng of the state As- (I) 1s trying to change its base In this state by to form a government between them, though a sembly candldates' select~on.Their discom- bringlng In more Rajputa and backfial-d they fell out later. The Congress(1) polled y, -4 I 0 I OPPOSITION PARTIES opposltton partlel. a bThe Janata Party (Secular) of Raj Narain IS puttlng up 822 candidates all over the country. It has not managed to forge any Mope Springs Eternal alllances or adjustments. But the party has given a call to all its members to work for the HILE mobs of fortune-hunters laid success oP the Congress(U), Janata Party and the Leftists where it does not have its own candidates. sprawling bungalows stood f~rlornand Partymen have been told to campaign for deserted. It wasn't hard to identify them the defeat of the Lok Dal. the Congress(1) as those of the leaders of the oppositioll and the Bharativa Janata Party. parties who are more involved in fighting b The Lok Dal whlch IS contesting 1.327 each other rather than the Congress(1). seats, is being blamed by all parties for their If the flow of election ticket-seekers is a collective failure to put up a united resistance barometer of the election prospects, the op- to the Congress(1) onslaught. Though it is position parties have already lost the nine not a part of the alllance lu Maharashtra, it states. has left about 30 seats for the Janata Party. But hope spnngs eternal In the human Charan Singh's megalomania In Uttar heart, and the oppos~tionparties st111 belleve Pradesh skewered all the attempts at forming the days of electoral miracles are not past. an opposition front. Conv~nced that his Reported dissensions and ranging jealousies party will form the government In that In the Congress(1) have stoked the embers of gargantuan state. he has put up candidates expectation. Says Bharatlya Janata Party ~n 412 of the 425 constituencies. He spurned leader Jagdish Prasad Mathur with a twinkle: the overtures of the BJP and the Janata . "If you look at the last few elections there Party, even though a sizeable section of the have always been surprises." Lok Dal leadersh~pwas for an alliance wlth Although the Opposition collected more the Janata. Said a Janata leader: "Charan votes than the Congress (I) in the Lok Sabha Sing11 treats us all with contempt. He elections in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Raja- thlnks only the Congress(1) and the Lok Dal sthan, their fragmentation prevents them exist. He is out of touch with real~ty." from taking advantage of this potential stren- The CPI and CPI-M have further gth. Instead, a weird and confunng pattern cemented thetr alllance and they are allied of alliances has emerged, and even party together in all the nine states. Where they leaders have trouble keeplng track of who have entered into deals with the other parties they are with in which state and why. they have done ~t together. If the CPI-M Following is the Assembly election played the big brother in the earller election, strategy of the opposition partles. it 1s the CPT which has assuined this role now. Brave words apart. ~t'sclear that in most INDIA TODAY. MAY j6-31. 1980 41 53.3 per cent of the votes and got 39 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in the recent election. Even if the Opposition votes were combined. the ruling party still led in 153 of the 288 Assembly segments. The Youth Congress(1) has managed to corner about 25 per cent of the Assembly nominations. This time the Congress(1) composed of diverse elements who had defected from various parties like the Congress (U), the Forward Bloc and Janata Party, faced a mad scramble for tickets. A string of luminaries rings the grid& in this state. Sugar baron Vasantdada Patil was chief minister in 1978 and carries clout in the.state. But despite his support in the ML'4.s' flt.ic:fcctscs at Mrs Gandhi's rc.vid~rlrc:1ooliit1,g for 11 l)/~rt.c,itt tlto .sltr7 state Congress Party. his chances are dimmed !iI by the claims of -other loyalists who are area, feudal politics have dominated the state her on election eve and was rewarded with closer to the power centre in New Delhi. because of its princely past. The Congress (I) a ministry. A former chief minister, he He could manage tickets for only 80 of secured 47.1 per cer~~of the votes and 35 has long dreamed of recapturing his lost his men. Congress(1) General Secretary of the 40 parliamentary seats in January. glory but the odds are increasingly against A. R. Antulay who was in the state Cabinet It led in 208 of the 320 Assembly segments, him. He might even lose his stall in the till 1976 when he moved to the Rajya Sabha. against the combined votes of the Opposition. Union Ministry, according to political seems to have scored a first round victory Though there is no Youth Congress(1) pundits. by packing the state list with about 150 of organisation to speak of in the state, the Sethi's decline could mean the rise of his nominees. This was achieved by shrewdly three leading lights of the Congress(I+ his principal adversary, Shukla. He has invoking the name of Sanjay Gandhi at former information minister Vidya Charan been loyal to the Gandliis in his own way crucial stages of the intra-party debate. Shukla, Union Housing Minister Prakash and fought a joint legal battle with Sanjay. The state boasts of two women con- Chandra Sethi and former state leader But analysts consider the "Prince of tenders for the top job. Pramilatai Chavan. of the Opposition. Arjun Singh-are loyal Chattisgarh" an unlikely choice for the a Mrs Gandhi loyalist. is the state Congress(1) to the Gandhis. The Youth Congress(1) state. He has been a chief minister likc his president. The other is Pratibha Patil, the supporters have bagged about 45 nomi- father Ravi Shanker Shukla before him leader of tlie Opposition in the dissolved As- nations. Around 65 per cent of the candidates and his brothel- Shyania Churan Shukla sembly. She has been in the ministries ofthrce are fighting an election for the first time. after him. To allow tlie Shukla empire to chief ministers but lacks political backing. Sethi. who deserted Mrs Gandhi after be re-established may not be in line with Two other contenders, Ramrao Adik. the I978 Congress split. crawled back to the Centre's strategy. However. his suppor- Mrs Chavan's second in command, and ters seem to have bagged a majority of the PERCENTAGE OF VOTES POLLED Nagpur businessman and former minister I LOK SABHA ELECTIONS-1980 i nominations. Jawaharlal Darda are counted lower down 1 Another name in the air is of the in the list of possibles. Mrs Chavan and suave Arjun Singh, 49. He was one of the Adik could get only about 70 of their first Madhya Pradesh leaders to join supporters into the state list. Mrs Gandhi after the 1978 split and has Finally. if nothing emerges from these been a steadfast supporter since. Yet another conflicting claims, the party could reach hopeful is the state party chief, Sadashiv for Information and Broadcasting Minister Solanki, believed to be close to Shukla. Vasant Sathe. But they could all be left bchind by There are already 40 rebel candidates blue-blooded Madhav Rao Scindia, 33, who in the fray and at least t-wo breakaway broke with his mother, Vijaynraje Scindia, groups have been formed. Claiming that BJP stalwart. to join tlie Congress (I) at "anti-party and anti-Indira elements" had the last minute before the January election. been given tickets, Anant Ayare, a Ratnagiri Since then he has been moving LIP in district leader, has formed the Assal Congress(1) circles and is slated for greater Congress(1)-meaning the real one. P. M. beights. Dekhate, a former minister, has launched All the 70 party members of the dis- the Parallel Congree(1) in Nagpur and solved Assembly. figure on the list: There claims the support of 14 ex-MLAs and have been murmurs of dissent and two three former ministers. former ministers. Kishorilal Shukla and Maharashtra politics. particularly that Hariprasad Shukla, are fielding independent of the Congress(1). has traditionally been candidates in protest against the refusal dominated by the Maratha community and of party tickets to "trusted and devoted the sugar lobby. This time, the Congress (I) Congress (I) workers". has tried to break their hold and reduced Gujarat: The popular movement against the number of tickets given to the Marathas Mrs Gandhi's party which raged throughout from 60 per cent to 35 per cent. which is prior to the Emergency originated from this. their proportion of the total population. the country's westernmost state. Almost ii- The party hopes the Maratha revolt would m~lltaneouswith the Allaliabad judgenicnt be offset by the broadening of its base. unseating her in 1975, came the news of hcr The Congress(U) is the contender for the party's defeat in the 1975 state election. second place. Though she regained control of the state Madhya Pradesh: The largest state in during the Emergency by engineering defec- INDIA TODAY. MAY 16-31. 1980 43 1977 led by the then chief 1ninistc1-Nanditii Satpathy-left a vacuum in this state. A band of young loyalists, led by the debonair Ram- chandra Rath, national Youth ~op&s (I) president. and the old loyalists filled this gap. R;~tliand .lanaki Ballabh Patnaik. the I'3 Union lahou~.~ninistrr who represents the 0 latter group, work in tandem and between INDIA TODAY. MAY 16-31. 1980 45
Nernber of the Lok Sabha Is 11 R
