Sometime in September 1995, newly appointed Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu addressed his maiden press conference in New Delhi’s Andhra Bhawan. The packed house, including this reporter, had many questions, one of them certainly was about the circumstances that led to the family coup resulting in the ouster of the then very powerful chief minister NT Rama Rao.
The coup was led by Naidu, NTR’s son-in-law, with the help of other family members. The coup was so smooth that 200-odd MLAs of the Telugu Desam Party switched sides almost immediately, leaving NTR a bitter man. NTR died six months later.
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Battle for Supremacy
Naidu did not say a word during that press conference and took another 16 long years to break his silence on the issue. Naidu’s justification was he did what he did to save his party. Referring to Lakshmi Parvathi, the second wife of NTR who is believed to have considerable influence on him, as “dushta shakti” (evil force), Naidu reportedly
said in 2011 that the revolt was intended to rid the party of “evil forces”.
Have we noticed similar words in the ongoing battle for supremacy in Mulayam Singh Yadav’s ‘Yadav parivar’? Sacked Samajwadi Party general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav, seen as Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav loyalist, said in an open letter that “asuri taqat” (evil forces) have surrounded family patriarch Mulayam, preventing the
latter from taking rational decisions.
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Targeting Outsiders
While Naidu’s obvious target was Parvati, the second wife and sauteli maa (stepmother) to NTR’s children, in the ongoing tussle in the Yadav family, warring factions are not willing to take names, at least not from within the family just yet. For Akhilesh and his supporters, the ‘villain’ on the face of it is party general secretary Amar Singh. Akhilesh called him a “dalal” and the outsider responsible for the rift in the family. Even a fence-sitter like Azam Khan, a powerful minister in the Akhilesh Yadav cabinet, is not so pleased with the bahari taqat (outsider).
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Political Ambitions Play Spoilsport
But the growing influence of sauteli maa (Mulayam’s second wife, Sadhna Gupta) has been talked about in this case too. There are reports that suggest that she has political ambitions for herself and her son Prateek Yadav. And she is using the clout of Amar Singh and Shivpal Yadav, Mulayam’s brother, to give shape to her ambition. Political
commentators say that this has not gone down well with Akhilesh who expected a firm hold over the party his father has built for nearly three decades. Closer to crucial assembly elections, Akhilesh expected a bigger share in ticket distribution and possible alliances.
Now that the family patriarch is not very far away from a political sansyas, stakes have gone up several notches for warring factions to make a far stronger claim over his legacy. Whether the politics of one-upmanship results in yet another political coup is yet to be seen, but one thing is clear, the Yadav parivar may take months, perhaps years to get rid of “evil forces”, whoever they are.
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On the occasion of NT Rama Rao’s 21st death anniversary, The Quint is re-publishing this story from its archives. It was originally published on 24 October, 2016.
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