Chandrababu Naidu is Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh yet again, but of an Andhra Pradesh different in form to the one he led in 1995. What all has transpired since the birth of the new State post-Independence ? And what might its political history portend for the future of Andhra Pradesh?
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From Madras State to Andhra to Andhra Pradesh and then splitting into two States, the Telugu-speaking region of the South has seen much upheaval and political turmoil. The political currents in the States of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana during the 21st century all trace back to roots in an earlier time, to linguistic struggles, division along caste lines, and regional pride.
We trace our path through this timeline, starting with the long-standing agitation for a State for the Telugu-speaking people and continuing today with the return of Telugu Desam Party to power.
The formation of Andhra Pradesh
There was a growing clamour for the creation of a State for the Telugu-speaking people over the years. This was furthered by a commitment that the Indian National Congress made in its Nagpur session in 1920, promising the linguistic reorganisation of provinces. In August 1920, the Madras Legislative Council consented to the creation of an Andhra Pradesh, and in March 1927 passed a resolution to this effect. Although this was forwarded to the Viceroy, who sent it to the secretary of state for India in Britain, no further steps were taken. “It appears that the British would grant us Independence sooner than the Tamil ministers would give us a separate province,” Pattabi Sittaramayya reportedly remarked— the hesitance was seemingly due the contribution of the Telugu-speaking districts to the Madras State exchequer.
Post-Independence the government set up the Linguistic Provinces Commission (the Dar Commission) in 1948 to consider the formation of new states along linguistic lines; it however, deemed this “not in the larger interests of the Indian nation.”
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In 1949, Prime Minister formed a committee comprising himself, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Pattabhi Sittaramayya (JVP committee) to probe this issue, but in November 1949, the Congress Working Committee asked the government to proceed with the formation of Andhra— without Madras. This, however, was not palatable to the Telugu public.
Post-Independence, the movement’s most recognised name is Potti Sriramulu, the “Founding father of Andhra,” known as Amarajeevi or “immortal being” to the Telugu people. Sriramulu, a Gandhian and satyagrahi, had undertaken fasts to uplift the Dalit community.
In 1952, he launched a fast unto death for a separate state for the Telugu-speaking people. After six weeks of fasting, a weakened Sriramulu slipped into a coma. Meanwhile, protests continued in the State.
The agitating Andhras had two pet hates: the Prime Minister, and the Chief Minister of Madras, C. Rajagopalachari, wrote Ramchadra Guha in an article for The Hindu. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru did not take their demands as seriously at first. In a letter to Rajagopalachari talking about “some kind of fast going on for the Andhra Province,” Nehru wrote that he was totally unmoved by the “frantic telegrams” and proposed to ignore it completely.
But the situation raplidly changed. In a letter to Rajagopalachari a few days before Sriramulu’s death, Nehru wrote, “Complete frustration will grow among the Andhras, and we will not be able to catch up with it.”
Sriramulu breathed his last on December 15, 1952. Violence broke out. Four days after the death of Potti Sriramulu, Nehru announced that the new state of Andhra Pradesh would be formed.
Even at this point, Nehru had his reservations about forming the new state, writing in a letter to Rajagopalachari that “their state will be a backward one in many ways and financially hard up. They cannot expect much help from the Centre.”
The state was formalised on October 1, 1953, sans Madras city, as Nehru wrote in his letter, “If they want the state, they can have it on conditions that we have stated (i.e, without Madras city).“
Along with other differences, the State’s most prominent communities, the Kammas and Reddys, had different views about the capital where the new State should be. The Kamma community favoured Vijayawada, but it was Kurnool that was chosen as capital by the Madra Legislature— the choice of the Rayalaseema members supported by Tamil MLAs.
Notably, the conflict over the capital also led to N.G Ranga, a prominent Congressman belonging to the Kamma community, exiting the party and setting up the KLP (Krishikar Lok Party).
Electoral politics in initial years
T. Prakasam was the first Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, while the legislators from the Andhra area elected to the Madras legislature in 1952 were transferred over to a 140-member Andhra Legislative Assembly. Among these, Congress had 38 members, 41 members belonged to the CPI and 61 were independent or belonged to smaller parties.
T. Prakasam, former Chief Minister of Madras province and former member of Congress and Praja Socialist Party, had founded the Praja Party. The first government in power in the State was a coalition comprising Congress, Krishikar Lok Party and Praja Party. N. Sanjiva Reddy served as Deputy Prime Minister.
The new state faced many prickly problems, such as differences between the parties over land reform and prohibition. The coalition fell apart, and the government lost a vote of confidence after a motion was put forth by CPI and KLP. Mid-term elections in 1955 saw the CPI pitted against a United Congress Front. An effective election strategy from SK Patil, and a splitting of the Kamma community vote proved beneficial for the Congress Front. Hyderabad Chief Minister, B Ramakrishna Rao appealed to Andhra people to vote for Congress from his sickbed, stressing that the people of Telangana would not accept a Vishalandhra with a non-Congress government at the helm. The Congress Working Committee also adoptyed a socialist stance.
Out of a total 194 seats, the Congress got 119 seats, while CPI got 15. The Congress formed the next government with Bezwada Gopal Reddy as Chief Minister.
Meanwhile, in the first elections post-independence (1952), CPI-Front parties (People’s Democratic Front and the Peasants and Workers Party got 37 seats in the Telangana area. Congress got 44 seats in the Telangana region. But overall Congress won 93 seats in the Hyderabad State.
From Andhra to Andhra Pradesh
The new State included Rayalaseema and Coastal Andhra, but no part of the princely state of Hyderabad. Hyderabad had been annexed to India under Operation Polo from September 13 to September 18, 1948. But it was only after several deliberations that unified Andhra Pradesh, including parts of Hyderabad State, came into being on November 1, 1956. Nehru was quite against what he termed the disintegration of the State of Hyderabad. When the merger announcement came from Nehru in a Nizamabad public meeting held on March 5, 1956, it came as a surprise.
The formation of Andhra Pradesh spurred further demands for creation of states along linguistic lines, leading to the States Reogranisation Committee (SRC) being set up in 1953. In keeping with the Indian Statutory Commission’s views that “it is neither possible nor desirable to reorganise States on a single test of either language or culture,” the SRC recommended a balanced approach to the issue, as reported by Frontline. It submitted its report in 1955, following which the State Reorganisation Act was passed in 1956.
The SRC recommended the merger of Telangana and Vishalandhra, saying that it would “bring into existence a State of about 32 million people with a considerable hinterland, with large water and power resources, adequate mineral wealth and valuable raw materials.” This would also solve the question of a permanent capital for Andhra, it said, pointing to the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad as ideal.
The people of Telangana opposed the merger. Possible reasons included Andhra’s poorer financial situation, concerns over the utilisation of the water of the rivers Krishna and Godavari, and inequality between the people of Telangana and Andhra
The SRC said that it was “primarily for the people of Telangana to take a decision about their future.” and recommended that it would “be in the interests of Andhra as well as Telangana, if for the present, the Telangana area is to be constituted into a separate State, which may be known as the Hyderabad State with provision for its unification with Andhra after the general elections likely to be held in or about 1961 if by a two-thirds majority the legislature of the residual Hyderabad State expresses itself in favour of such unification.”
After much deliberation, the State of Andhra Pradesh was created in 1956 by merging 11 districts of the erstwhile State of Andhra with nine districts of Telengana Region of the former State of Hyderabad.
Leaders of Andhra and Telangana signed a Gentlemen’s Agreement in 1956 to ensure the provision of safeguards to the people of Telangana. These measures included the distribution of revenue and industries, representation in the Cabinet, domicile status, and importance given to the local language and culture.
Separatist movements abound
A violent Mulki agitation in Telangana between 1948 to 1952 after the Hyderabad State’s annexation to the union had been quelled only after jobs were safeguarded for those people resident for 14 years.
But the region’s troubles were far from over post the merger. Telangana’s leaders believed that Andhra would dominate their region. The State witnessed a violent ‘separate Telangana’ agitation in 1969 and a ‘separate Andhra’ agitation in 1972.
The 1969 movement was triggered by hunger strike by Ravindranath, a job aspirant, at the Kothegudem Thermal Power Station, which started functioning in 1966.
A bandh was called on January 15, 1969. The ensuing protests saw the participation of students, including a key role played by students from Osmania University, government employees, APSRTC employees, advocates and social groups. The protests took a violent turn; several died in police firings and some students even committed suicide.
The protests spiralled out of control and continued till 1973, claiming 369 lives.
At the forefront were student leaders such as M. Sridhar Reddy, president of OU’s Arts College students union. They faced off against the Sampoorna Telangana Praja Samithi (STPS) established by former chief minister and Congress leader Marri Channa Reddy.
A Court order added fuel to the fire— on February 3, Justice Chinnappa Reddy struck down the Mulki rules pertaining to government jobs. The rules were safeguards to ensure that Mulkis, or native residents, did not face difficulty in procuring government jobs in Telangana. A day later, Chief Justice P. Jaganmohan Reddy and Justice A. Sambasivarao of the Andhra Pradesh High Court stayed the single-judge order after the government went in to appeal.
Eventually, the rules were upheld by the Supreme Court. This in turn, caused the Jai Andhra movement of 1972 to gain momentum. To the people of Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema, the Mulki rules seemed to treat them as foreigners in their own land.
Following the 1969 agitations, a six-point formula was evolved by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi for “accelerated development of backward regions and preferential treatment to local candidates in employment.”
Congress exit and rise of TDP
Congress maintained a hold in Andhra Pradesh in the decades following the merger. In the 1972 State Assembly elections, the Congress party won more than 52% of the votes cast and 219 seats out of 287.
However, a decade later, in the run-up to the 1983 elections, victory didn’t seem guaranteed for the Congress. The central planks of Indira Gandhi’s campaign in Andhra Pradesh was anti-regionalism and the benefit of stable governments at the Centre and the State. But this failed to strike a chord among the public. This was especially following a particularly tumultuous time in the State, with four Chief Ministers in as many years between 1978 and 1982.
At this time, YS Rajashekhara Reddy became the head of the Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee in 1982.
Telugu Vaari Atma Gauravam” (self respect of the Telugu people) — this was the clarion call of the Telugu Desam Party, founded by beloved Telugu superstar Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao in March 1982, purportedly to counter the self-respect of the Telugu people being “bartered away in the streets of Delhi,” in his words.
Within nine months of floating the party, NTR, as he is popularly known, went on to sweep the 1983 Assembly elections in then undivided Andhra Pradesh, bringing to an end 27 years of rule by the Congress.
The debutant TDP won a massive 201 out of a total 294 seats, while the Congress was reduced to just 60 seats from the 175 it had won in the 1978 elections. NTR himself won from both the constituencies he contested - Gudivada and Tirupati. And on January 9, 1983, N.T Rama Rao took the oath of office as the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh.
Post the poll results, Nara Chandrababu Naidu jumped ship from the Congress to the TDP.
In the general elections post Indira Gandhi’s assassination, a wave of sympathy propelled Congress under Rajiv Gandhi to an absolute majority, with the party bagging more than 400 seats in the Lok Sabha. In the same election, the TDP under NTR won 30 seats in Andhra Pradesh, bucking the Congress juggernaut and became the second largest party in Parliament. TDP countered notions of it being a transient phenomenon by becoming the single largest party in Opposition after the 1984 Lok Sabha elections, surpassing several other national parties.
Congress(I) manoevres to dismiss NTR as Chief Minister in August 1984 earned his ire and brough him closer to national opposition parties like the Janata Party, Bharatiya Janata Sangh and the Left parties. This resulted in the eventual formation of the National Front with him as the Chairman in 1988, just in time for the 1989 Lok Sabha elections which saw the rise of V.P Singh.
The 1989 Assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh saw the Congress bounce back to power winning 180 seats and the TDP winning only in 74. As India Today notes, certain policy decisions by NT Rama Rao did not find favour with the public, including him sacking his cabinet in February 1989, the concentration of power in the hands of his sons-in-law Chandrababu Naidu and Dr Venkateshwara Rao, a bias towards the Kamma community, and failing to stand upon a promise to offer 30% reservation for women. He was also known for eccentric decision-making. NTR handed in his resignation to Kumudben Joshi. In his stead, Mari Chenna Reddy of the Congress became Chief Minister.
However, in the subsequent election in 1994, TDP won a massive 216 out of 294 seats, with NTR taking the State’s top post for a third term.
Telugu Desam Party - takeover by Chandrababu Naidu
NTR’s third term was short lived, as a family crisis broke out in the party. NTR’s son-in-law Chandrababu Naidu revolted against him in 1995, protesting the growing interference of Lakshmi Parvathi, NTR’s wife. NTR had married Lakshmi Parvati in 1993, and reportedly sought to groom her as his successor.
This led to dissension within the TDP ranks. Mr. Naidu had the backing of NTR’s sons and claimed the support of a majority of MLAs. After a week of high drama, he eventually ousted NTR from power in an intra-party coup and took over the top post in September 1995.
On January 18, 1996, N.T Rama Rao passed away. Although Parvathi attempted to create her own TDP faction, the TDP legacy was eventually completely taken over by Chandrababu Naidu.
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References: 1. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25664143?read-now=1&seq=4#page_scan_tab_contents 2. The Hindu Archives
