Sasikala‘s Tamil Nadu battle mirrors NTR-Naidu feud in Andhra

HYDERABAD: The events unfolding in Tamil Nadu may seem like a political shocker, but there have been more bitter precedents for it in erstwhile Andhra Pradesh. In similarly vicious combats for power, internal coups were declared and MLAs ensconced in hotels and resorts to prevent horse-trading in 1984 and 1995, when N T Rama Rao’s rein over the state was challenged.
In Tamil Nadu, incumbent chief minister O Panneerselvam has raised the banner of revolt against a transfer of power to Jayalalithaa’s close friend and new chief of AIADMK, V K Sasikala. Faced with dissension, Sasikala has holed up her supporting MLAs in resorts to prevent them from being poached.
In August 1984, similar scenes were witnessed in Andhra Pradesh. After NTR was unceremoniously ousted by his finance minister Nadendla Bhaskara Rao, who claimed the support of a majority of TDP MLAs, NTR shifted his supporters to Nandi Hills in Mysore, Karnataka. The MLAs were cut off from any contact in a resort.
The crisis lasted for a month, during which NTR took up extensive campaigning against the governor-backed new power camp and mobilised support of non-Congress parties across the country. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was then forced to remove governor Ramlal and replace him with Shankar Dayal Sharma. The new governor restored NTR to power in September 1984.
“Since it was clear that N T Rama Rao had the majority, the governor asked him to form the government again,” political analyst VJM Diwakar said.
Over 10 years later in 1995, NTR faced another similar uprising, this time from within the family. His son-in-law and then revenue minister N Chandrababu Naidu engineered a coup and took over the offices on August 23. The move was prompted over fears of NTR trying to hand over the party to his second wife Lakshmi Parvathi.
This time, it was Naidu who huddled his supporters into the Viceroy Hotel (now Marriot) at Lower Tank Bund. The then speaker Y Ramakrishnudu, who was in Tuni, was hurriedly ferried back to the city in a private aircraft. At a committee hall in the assembly building, the speaker took a head count of the MLAs supporting Naidu. Interestingly, Tamil superstar Rajnikant lent his support to Naidu and urged them to stand with him.
NTR was taken ill and admitted to Mediciti Hospital. Governor Krishan Kant met NTR at the hospital, accepted his resignation and swore-in Naidu as chief minister.