It was exactly 15 years ago on December 9th (today), which happens to be Sonia Gandhi’s birthday, when an official announcement was made, 20 minutes before midnight, to announce the creation of a separate State of Telangana from the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh. This was a decision which baffled many since at that point of time, there was no fresh demand for Telangana, and yet, senior leader P. Chidambaram made this declaration, considered a major political folly and which contributed to the loss of the Congress party in the 2014 Parliamentary polls. The credit for the formation of the State which created a lot of bad blood amongst party supporters, was given fully to the then Congress president, and this claim was reiterated by Rahul Gandhi during the campaign for the Assembly polls last year. Usually, political decisions are taken to help a political party gain a stranglehold over a region, but in this case, the reverse happened. For more than a decade, the Congress became a non-entity in a place which it ruled even during its worst phases in history. Both people of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana reacted to the development differently.
Those in Andhra Pradesh considered it as an act of betrayal and those in the newly formed State decided to back K.Chandrasekhar Rao, the leader of the Bharatiya Rashtriya Samiti, who became the first Chief Minister and remained in office for ten years. And if the Congress is in power in Telangana today, it is solely because of the efforts of the present CM, Revanth Reddy, who as the PCC boss, turned things around, and upset all calculations by overwhelming Rao, in a significant electoral battle. Reddy had staked his reputation and also spent his own money in the polls which became a contest between the Congress and the BRS mainly with the BJP being a fringe player and Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP, deciding to focus only on regaining Andhra Pradesh, or what was left of it, after the division. The Congress had while deciding to carve out the new State, appeared to have momentary amnesia, forgetting that it was purely due to the efforts of the then Chief Minister and senior leader, the late YS Rajsekhar Reddy, that the party managed to defeat the BJP and its allies both in 2004 and 2009 Parliamentary polls. YSR, had emerged as a power house from the South and had contributed 29 and 33 seats respectively in the two elections to add to the party’s overall figures. He had a direct equation with Sonia Gandhi and had unrestricted access and could get his lists cleared, on most occasions bypassing powerful members of the Congress Chief’s coterie. This did not go well with the coterie members and they would leave no stone unturned in trying to undermine him but could never succeed. YSR was indeed a rising star and after he managed to hold the AICC plenary in Hyderabad in 2006, his stock amongst party men had gone up. Many viewed him as a possible Prime Minister aspirant after Dr Manmohan Singh, whose innings appeared to be doubtful as some of his colleagues made their PM ambitions known.
Unfortunately, YSR died soon after the polls in a tragic and mysterious helicopter crash. Thereafter, from the South, it was P. Chidambaram who was viewed as a front runner and if conspiracy theories, which were always there in the party, are to be believed, he was already plotting his way up. A. Raja, then a minister who was jailed following the 2G scam, has in his book implied, that PC, had started playing dirty and was wanting to destabilize the government so he could succeed Manmohan Singh. Pranab Mukherjee, who was also an aspirant and would have perhaps made a good Prime Minister, sensed that his chances had receded as the Congress president had developed a soft corner for PC. He thus in an interview to Priya Sahgal in India today in July, 2010, stated that he would never be a member of a government that would be headed by Rahul Gandhi in the future. Pranab was sure that RG would be the final choice and before that PC was going to be an important player. Thus, he shifted his priorities in politics and decided in his mind that he would go in for the President’s job in 2012, something which he accomplished ultimately. Before that, following YSR’s demise, some powerful people in the Congress convinced Sonia Gandhi to appoint Konijeti Rosaiah as the CM. Incidentally, Rosaiah was from a community which had marginal presence in undivided Andhra Pradesh and was someone who during the Janata Party rule at the Centre had used unparliamentary language against Indira Gandhi. His appointment coincided with two incidents. The first was that the Congress High Command distanced itself from YSR’s family, forcing them to quit the party.
And more importantly, the decline of the party in its strongest state commenced. After the decision to bifurcate the State, the Congress drew blank in the parliamentary polls and in the subsequent Assembly elections. The powerhouse of the party had been destroyed by its own power brokers and Sonia Gandhi, never realized that the consequences of her nod would lead to such an alarming situation. The Congress won back Telangana last year but has a long way to go so far as Andhra is concerned. However, on the occasion of Sonia Gandhi’s 78th birthday, her followers send their greetings. Nevertheless, the fall and decline of the grand old party started from the announcement to divide the State in 2009.
