Some quirky politics by Mamata Banerjee and Mulayam Singh Yadav and 24X7
news channels suddenly turned Presidential election into an exciting affair.
But announcment of Pranab Mukherjee’s candidature – his election to the
country’s highest office now looks a foregone conclusion – was slow Test match
cricket compared to fireworks of an IPL match witnessed in 1969 Presidential
election. The drama unfolded against the backdrop of widening difference
between the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and the Congress old guards, who
used to control the party with an iron grip. These stalwarts – K Kamraj, Atulya
Ghosh, S K Patil and Congress President S Nijalingappa were collectively known
as the Syndicate. Syndicate was deeply unhappy with the Prime Minister, who
they feared was getting out of their control. Prime Minister on the other hand
was looking for a suitable opportunity to break free from their clutches with
the help of a new generation of younger leaders like Chandra Sekhar, known as
Young Turks and a coterie of brilliant advisors led by P N Haksar. When
President Zakir Hussein died half way through his term, the Congress Party
nominated Neelam Sanjiva Reddy, Lok Sabha speaker, as their official candidate.
Prime Minister was opposed to Reddy’s candidature but the Working Committee
overruled her. Combined opposition candidate was C D Deshmukh. Vice President V
V Giri, a well-respected labour leader from Sanjiva Reddy’s home state, Andhra
Pradesh decided to contest the election as an independent. Giri had excellent
relations with Indira Gandhi and she had earlier proposed his name in the
Working Committee meeting.
N Sanjiva Reddy V V Giri
Even as the election was nearing, despite several requests from the Party
President, Mrs Gandhi refused to speak in support of Sanjiva Reddy. It was
reported in the press that her close supporters were canvassing support for V V
Giri. Nijalingappa then decided to seek support from Jan Sangh and Swatantra
Party – a move immediately pounced upon by the Prime Minister’s camp. They
“requisitioned” a special session of AICC – but their request was turned down. Prime Minister finally spoke on 20th August, famously asking for a "vote of Conscience". This was obviously interpreted as her open support for
Giri. Still a large number of old faithful stuck to the official choice. After
the first round of counting, no candidate could muster enough votes but after
the second round – that is based on second preference votes – Giri managed to
win. After a bitter and public exchange of charges and counter-charges,
Congress finally decided to expel its own prime minister from the party in
November. This led to the famous Congress split – old guards stayed in Congress
(O) – O for original and prime minister’s supporters formed Congress (R) – R
stood for Requisitionists or according to another version, for Reform.
Rajaji Rajendra Prasad
It is well known that Jawaharlal Nehru wanted the first Indian Governor
General C Rajagopalachari to become the first President as well. But with
Sardar Patel and bulk of the Congress Party behind him, Rajendra Prasad won the
nomination. First three Presidential elections were easy as Congress had
absolute majority both in the centre and states. 1969 was the first election
after Congress lost a few state polls. In 1974, it was easy for Congress again
– now under the sole command of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi – to send
Fakruddin Ali Ahmed to Rashtrapati Bhavan. Ahmed’s death prompted another
election in 1977. This time Neelam Sanjiva Reddy, candidate of the first
non-Congress government at the centre, became the first and so far only person
to have won Presidential election unopposed. At 63, Sanjiva Reddy was also the
youngest President so far.
Fakhruddin Ali Ahmad Gyani Jail Singh
When elected, Pranab Mukherjee will become the third Cabinet Minister to
directly go to the Rashtrapati Bhavan – other two being his former cabinet
colleagues Fakruddin Ali Ahmed, who was Food Minister in 1974 and Gyani Jail
Singh, Home Minister in 1982. Mukherjee
will be the first Bengali to occupy the Raisina Hills. So far we have had three
Presidents from Tamil Nadu (Radhakrishnan, Venkatraman and Kalam), two from
Andhra (Giri, though when he was born his village was part of Orissa and
Sanjiva Reddy), one each from Bihar (Rajendra Prasad), UP (Zakir Hussein –
though he was born in Hyderabad), Assam (Fakruddin Ali Ahmed), Punjab (Gyani
Jail Singh), MP (Shankar Dayal Sharma), Kerala (K R Narayanan) and Maharashtra
(Pratibha Patil). Politics in India definitely runs in blood - Pranab
Mukherjee’s father was a Congress MLA and his son is a sitting Congress MLA in
Bengal as is Pratibha Patil’s son in Maharashtra. Among the current Union
Ministers, Salman Khurshid is the grandson of Zakir Hussein and Ajay Maken is
related to Shankar Dayal Sharma.
Justice M Hidayatullah |
No comments:
Post a Comment