The dynasty factor

COMING SOMEWHAT CLOSE on the heels of elections to the State Assembly and the Lok Sabha, the questions that the bypoll to the two Assembly constituencies of Bhongir and Chevella in Andhra Pradesh throw up may not be the kind that directly concern the fortunes of different political parties. To the extent that these are relevant, they are underpinned by the preeminence of the personality factor in Indian politics and its real and perceived electoral dividends. If the political interest is therefore only marginal, it is on account of the fact that both the Telugu Desam and the Congress(I) can expect to retain their respective seats. This is because the leaders - A. Madhava Reddy, Minister for Panchayat Raj, and the Congress-(I) MLA, P. Indra Reddy - whose death caused the election were heavyweights. The broader issues raised by the predictable decision of the two parties to field the widows, both of whom are new entrants on the political scene, point to the by-now accepted practice among the political classes to sponsor the spouses, sons and daughters of prominent partymen.

Virtually every mainstream party today issues the ticket to the kin of political heavyweights and local satraps; the exceptions are perhaps the two communist parties. Among the factors that account for the pervasiveness of this phenomenon must rank the fact of individual personalities being able to command greater credibility with the people than the parties they represent and conversely, the heavy reliance of parties on such personalities to ensure greater internal cohesiveness. Indeed, so significant is the personality factor that the Telugu Desam was reportedly wooing the Congress(I) MLA's widow with a ticket until she decided to throw in her lot with the latter. The Congress(I) is of course the classic example. The natural proclivity to exploit this into electoral dividend is understandable. Such dividend as may accrue and the consequent dependence upon it is all the more in evidence in case of the assassination of a political personality, forcing spouses, sons and daughters into the arena to cash in on the sympathy vote. This is obviously different from the process of early initiation which brings the second generation into political prominence. An example of the latter is someone like Mr. Stalin, present Mayor of Chennai and son of the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. The Ajit Singhs, the Naveen Patnaiks and the Omar Abdullahs of course belong to a separate category drawn into the fray purely by the attractions of a worthwhile family avocation.

But the party that has been singularly disparaged and accused of nurturing dynastic aspirations is the Congress(I). This is probably not surprising in view of the immeasureable political mileage that the personal charisma of Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi yielded for the party, amidst the popularity of anti-Congressism which has put a convenient gloss on the many differences within this near-universal aspiration of dynastic succession. But there can be no disputing the fact that the propensity to exploit a potential sympathy vote or close connection with a high profile leader underlies the distribution of seats in most parties. Indeed, when the IT-savvy Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Mr. Chandrababu Naidu, plays the same card, it is only a measure of the recognition and legitimacy, not to speak of its utility, that the so-called dynasty factor, in all its varied manifestations, has come to acquire in Indian politics.

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