Voters deal severe blow to Gandhi party

Press, 8 January 1983, Page 8

Voters deal severe blow to Gandhi party

NZPA-Reuter New Delhi

The Indian Prime Minister Mrs Indira Gandhi suffered her worst electoral setback in recent years on Thursday when her Congress (Il Party was ousted from power in state elections in south India.

The party so far virtually unchallenged in the southern states of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, surrendered control to new regional groupings, including one led by a film idol making his political debut. The reverses, the first since Mrs Gandhi returned to power three years ago. extended to the north eastern state of Tripura where a Marxist-led coalition retained power. The outcome in Andhra Pradesh was particularly humiliating for Mrs Gandhi because her well-entrenched party was crushed by a group formed only last March by a matinee idolturned politician, Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao. She also represents Andhra Pradesh, in the national Parliament.

Mr Rama Rao, aged 60, exploiting the popular discontent with the factionridden Congress (I), emerged as the first opposition leader to capture power in the state since the mid-50s.

More surprising was the Congress defeat, also its first, in neighbouring Karnataka, another southern stronghold. The party lost to a loose coalition led by a grouping of rebel congressmen.

Her defeat in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Mrs

Gandhi’s traditional power base, shrinks her hold in the south virtually to the former French territory of Pondicherry and to an extent in Kerala, where her party is a partner in the non-Commun-ist coalition Government.

The Congress (I) governs 15 of the country’s 22 states. Elections have been called for next month in the north eastern state of Assam, now governed direct from New Delhi.

Although the election results reflect a dramatic slump in Mrs Gandhi’s popularity, there is no apparent threat to her at the national level. She has an overwhelmingly majority in Parliament and the next General Election is not due until 1985.

Analysts say that Mrs Ganhdi had lost ground not to any main opposition parties. but to regional groups

voicing demands for greater local autonomy. A more immediate implication of her reverses will be on her ability to deal with the factionalism in her party, which was a big reason for its electoral rebuff.

The Congress (I) has already split in the western state" of Gujarat and rebellion is simmering in several other states.

Dissidents, analysts say. would be more daring in challenging her authority now that they know her voter appeal is waning. Mr Rama Rao is almost a cult figure. Tall, well-built Mr Rama Rao stormed into the centre of Andhra's political stage in March on the strength of his formidable reputation as a Telugu-language film star often cast as a Hindu god. Electioneering in a vintage Chevrolet converted into a campaign trailer. Mr Rama Rao matched his glamour with the charisma of Mrs Gandhi and won. But publicly he dismissed suggestions that his cinema image was a factor in the campaign.

“I am completely black, there is no glamour . .. no, it is the faith of the people." he said.

But some people say that Mr Rama Rao casts a magical spell on his followers, many of whom see him as living image of the divine roles he plays in films. The N.T.R. phenomenon, as some commentators describe it. is not unusual in a country where box-office stars often command greater following

than politicians. One southern state has been governed by another film idol, M. G. Ramachandran. since 1977. Mr Rama Rao's success was remarkable, considering that he had no political base, no record of public service, and only a hastily put-to-gether party organisation. His main campaign promise was to stop the state’s politics from being manipulated by New’ Delhi and restore " the pride of the Telugu people by uplifting Andhra Pradesh. Under attack from Mrs Gandhi for voicing regional demands, Mr Rama Rao said that his party was regional only in the sense that it sought the development of Andhra Pradesh, but in all other matters it would take a broad national view.

“We form part and parcel of the wider nation .. . there need be no fear to the contrary," he told the “Statesman" newspaper recently.

So confident Mr Rama Rao was of his success that he spurned alliance offers from long-standing opposition parties, but linked up with a tiny political group led by Maneka Gandhi, rebel daughter-in-law of Mrs Gandhi.

The group was named by Sanjay Vichar Manch (Sanjay Ideals Platform) after Mrs Gandhi’s late son. Sanjay. Maneka, estranged from the Prime Minister for political and personal reasons, did not contest the elections. Mrs

Rama Rao said that he had decided to align with Maneka out of sympathy.