Hyderabad: The elections to legislative councils of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana from MLAs quota on Mach 20 have thrown up curious surprises – especially in Andhra Pradesh. Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has denied renomination to a pillar of the party, Yanamala Ramakrishnudu.
Krishnudu was the speaker of the Andhra Pradesh legislative assembly in the combined state during the political turmoil triggered by the Naidu-led coup against then chief minister, his father-in-law, N.T. Rama Rao in 1996.
With his group visibly reduced to a minority, NTR had walked out of the House in a huff as Ramakrishnudu presided over the proceedings of a floor test to confirm Naidu’s claim as the chief minister on the fateful day when Assembly was specially convened to decide who will helm the state.
Days prior to that, Naidu had split the TDP to head a majority group of MLAs and confine them to a star hotel until the test was held. The rest is history as Naidu was sworn in as chief minister with the mandate given by the Assembly.
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Such a man, considered part of the think tank of Naidu, has now been denied a ticket to contest elections to fill five vacancies to the legislative council from MLAs quota. Besides Ramakrishnudu, now 75, four other incumbent MLCs who were elected by members of the Assembly in 2019 will be retiring after expiry of their six year term at the end of this month, necessitating polls to fill their vacancies. Of the five, only B.T. Naidu’s candidature has been renewed.
What apparently went against Ramakrishnudu was that his daughter was already an MLA from Tuni Assembly constituency in East Godavari, represented by him six times, while his son-in-law was the MP of Eluru and his brother-in-law was an MLA – all from TDP.
The decision to drop Ramakrishnudu in ticket allotment was seen as an extension of Naidu’s strategy to infuse young blood in government and legislature.
Lokesh emerges from Naidu’s shadow
When Naidu was sworn in as the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh after TDP’s landslide victory in Assembly elections eight months ago, 17 of the 25 ministers who were inducted into the cabinet were first-time ministers. Eight of them were also first time MLAs. Naidu overlooked the chances of nearly a score of senior MLAs in government formation, sending a clear message that he expected the youth to lead the party and government in future.
Naidu tasked his son Lokesh to lead from the front.
Since the emergence of Lokesh as a power centre, he has vetted all crucial decisions both in government and party since. It was therefore no surprise that three TDP candidates who were chosen for the upcoming elections – Kavali Greeshma, Beeda Ravichandra Yadav and B.T. Naidu, with B.T Naidu being an incumbent MLC – were said to be in the coterie of Lokesh.
Greeshma, the daughter of former speaker Pratibha Bharati, was involved in a controversy allegedly over use of foul language in a public speech and making masculine threats to political rivals. The TDP conceded one seat each to its alliance partners Jana Sena and BJP for the elections to five vacancies.
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There were nearly 20 aspirants for the three seats which the TDP wanted to contest. They included hot favourites and former ministers like Devineni Umamaheshwara Rao and K.S. Jawahar, both of whom sacrificed their seats to accommodate the friendly parties in seat sharing adjustments. In fact, Jana Sena chief and deputy chief minister Pawan Kalyan won from Pithapuram constituency in East Godavari district, a seat earlier represented by a TDP leader S.V.S.N. Verma.
The last straw
The last straw was said to be a letter written by Ramakrishnudu to Naidu criticising the stand of the government for backing a leader who allegedly encroached lands of Kakinada port and a Special Economic Zone. Ramakrishnudu had been a member of the legislative council since 2013 and was also the state finance minister when TDP formed government post-bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh in 2014.
He was first elected to the Assembly in 1983 when NTR took the state by a storm and hoisted the TDP in government. Being a lawyer, he was straightaway inducted into NTR’s cabinet as law minister.
In the next term of TDP from 1985 to 1989, he held the portfolio of municipal administration and then became the speaker in the next term of TDP as a ruling party from 1994 to 1999 which saw the transfer of power from NTR to Naidu. He returned to the government as finance minister from 1999 to 2004. When TDP was out of power from 2004 to 2009 again, he was the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee of the legislature, a post generally reserved for the main opposition party.
He lost the election for the first time in 2009. But, such plum assignments till then had arguably made him the undisputed leader of the party after Naidu.
Political analyst Telakapalli Ravi told The Wire that the denial of ticket to Ramakrishnudu was a clear message about Naidu’s intentions not to accommodate seniors in ticket allotment any more. Instead, he was in favour of their family members to reap the benefit of their dynastic roots and legacy.
Ravi cited P. Aditi Vijayalaxmi, daughter of former civil aviation minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju, as an example of Naidu harbouring descendents of political dynasties in preference to their ageing parents who already made their mark. Aditi is a first-time MLA from Vizianagaram constituency while her father was the scion of the royal family of the princely state of Vizianagaram. Ashok Gajapathi Raju did not contest the last elections.
Except Ayyanna Patrudu who was made the Speaker in the present term of Andhra Pradesh Assembly, all the seniors in the party were sidelined from key roles. They included seven-time MLA Gorantla Butchaiah Chowdary.
Virtually calling it the end of the road for Ramakrishnudu, Ravi said there was no way the former could enter limelight again unless he was considered for Rajya Sabha which was difficult to imagine at his late age.
Another analyst Pentapati Pulla Rao said Naidu had exposed his idea to retire senior leaders and induct new faces in government and legislature to overcome anti-incumbency to an extent. The voters will be vexed with the same leaders at the helm for too long.
The elections are taking place in Andhra Pradesh on the back of big achievements for the TDP in the recent elections to the legislative council from graduates and teachers constituencies. Candidates backed by the TDP and friendly parties won all the five seats.
In contrast, for the upcoming election to the council of Telangana, the ruling Congress has fielded a Tollywood actress Vijayashanti for one of the five seats from MLAs quota. With 66 out of 119 members in the Assembly, the Congress and its partner, Communist Party of India (CPI), is assured of winning four seats, while the Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) has numbers to claim the fifth seat.
Vijayashanti, a former MP of BRS, joined the Congress before the last Assembly elections reportedly on an assurance that the party will give her MLC ticket. Beside Vijayashanti, who was selected as a representative of the backward classes, the Congress has fielded a Scheduled Caste leader and a Scheduled Tribe leader for two other seats. It has given up the fourth seat to the CPI.
The Congress lost the recent election to the council from the graduates constituency by a narrow margin. The Congress failed to retain the seat with its senior leader T. Jeevan Reddy as the incumbent MLC in a close contest where 20,000 polled votes were invalidated due to wrong marking on the ballot. The BJP, on the other hand, was on a new high winning all three seats that went to polls.
