A Congress CM: On the Endangered Species List

When Rajaji returned from the national level back to Madras in 1952, there was more trouble. The Congress won just 152 of the 375 seats on offer. Even though the Opposition could get together and muster up more seats, the Governor made Rajaji Chief Minister without consulting the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who totally disapproved.

The Andhra State riots totally weakened Rajaji's position. He fought against his own partyman Kumarasami Kamaraj. Kamaraj eventually became Chief Minister and ruled the state for 9 stable years. However he then introduced the Kamaraj Plan, which helped the Congress at the national level.

The Kamaraj Plan asked for senior Congressmen to quit their posts and revitalize the party at the national level. People who were part of this plan were Lal Bahadur Shastri and Morarji Desai who both eventually became Prime Ministers and Jagjivan Ram who made Deputy PM.

So in 1963, just one year into his five-year term, he quit as CM, putting a not so popular M. Bhaktavatsalam in charge, destroying the Congress base in the state. Bhaktavatsalam was the last Congress CM. His rule is most famous for the anti-Hindi agitations and a time when the DMK gained a firm footing in the state, a stranglehold that is yet to be broken, considering the fact that the AIADMK is a breakaway faction of the DMK.

West Bengal: 34 years

You can fight a single person or party, but it's extremely difficult to fight an ideology. The Left had been making steady gains in West Bengal after Independence.

In 1962, all the Left parties combined got 82 seats out of 252. Then in 1967, two things happened. Jyoti Basu became Deputy CM in a coalition government and the violent Naxalite movement broke out.

The Congress panicked and it won the 1972 elections amidst allegations of widespread rigging. In the next five years, a reign of terror was unleashed against the Naxalite violence, something that coincided with the Draconian national Emergency towards the end.

The anti-Congress backlash was so great, that even after 34 years, the Congress cannot hope to come on its own. Their meager 42 seats in the recent Assembly polls will feel like a landslide compared to some of the drubbings they have had in the past.

Uttar Pradesh: 22 years

If you don't count the farce that was Jagdambika Pal, who was CM of the state for a mere 3 days, then the last proper Congress CM was ND Tiwari, whose reign ended in 1989. After that to the present date, there have been a whopping 13 non-Congress CMs (including repetitions) in 22 years, with all of them failing to bring any type of development or stability to the state.

Yet, the voters of UP have refused the touch the Congress with a bargepole. Why?

The reason is that the amount of support Uttar Pradesh has given Congress in the past, no state comes close. Uttar Pradesh has produced Prime Ministers and has in many elections given a whopping 80+ seats in the Lok Sabha polls.

As a reward UP was consistently one of the most backward states of the land. After they were kicked out with a vengeance in 1989, they are still seeking a second chance.

In fact the SP, BJP and BSP all failed. But instead of trying the Congress again, the other parties were given a second chance.

Of course, the Congress is extremely hopeful for 2012. For one, they won 21 Lok Sabha seats in 2009.
Secondly Mayawati has dug her own grave by arresting Rahul Gandhi and making him some sort of hero in UP.

Bihar: 21 years

Bihar was another case of monumental neglect. When we got Independence, Bihar had one of the best bureaucracies and industries of India.

The Congress, through a series of puppet chief ministers totally ignored the development of the state and things deteriorated rapidly.

In fact, so much was the ire of the people that Laloo Prasad Yadav and Rabri Devi ruled for 15 years despite having nothing to show for it.

When the change of guard came, like West Bengal's Mamata Banerjee, the people turned to a non-Congress CM in Nitish Kumar.

Nitish's spectacular governance has meant that the Congress exile in Bihar may continue for many more years.

Gujarat: 16 years, Orissa: 11 years

Once it was said that Indira is India and India is Indira. Similarly today one can say that Modi is Gujarat and Gujarat is Modi. The spectacular development in Gujarat is shutting doors for the Congress in the state.

In Orissa, Naveen Patnaik is into his third term and shows no signs of weakening.

How to lose a few more states...

In 2009, Andhra Pradesh was the crown jewel of the Congress. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy had just been re-elected and Andhra netted 33 Lok Sabha seats for the Congress. Things looked good for another 5-10 years.

But here was an example of how quickly things can change. Following YSR's tragic death, things fell apart quite rapidly. Barely had K Rosiah completed a year as CM, when he was replaced by Nallari Reddy.

Then there was the violence of the Telangana agitation and finally the rebellion of Jaganmohan Reddy.

Things don't look good for 2014 and if Chandrababu Naidu of the TDP makes a comeback, then he won't make the mistakes of his first term.

Maharashtra and Karnataka were other model states that were in the forefront of development. In the last 12 years, there have been six Congress CMs!

In Karnataka, Dharam Singh was such a disaster that the Congress seems to have been forgotten. BS Yedyurappa is inundated with corruption scandals and yet his party is winning bye-election after bye-election!

When it comes to the state of Jammu & Kashmir, the Congress lost its hold in 1975. Till then power had always alternated with the National Conference. But in the last 36 years, the Congress has held power for a mere two-and-a-half years.

In fact there have been five bouts of President's Rule!

The Bofors scandal wiped out Rajiv Gandhi's record majority in Parliament.

The current government has 2G, CWG, Adarsh, black money...

The road looks uphill for the Congress both at the state and national levels.


The author is a Bangalore-based journalist and blogger. He blogs at http://sunilrajguru.com/