Sasikala repeats two famous AP coups
Chennai drama eerily similar to two incidents in AP, from 1984 and 1995
Political developments in Tamil Nadu over the past few days resemble, in many ways, the drama that had played out during the August 1984 coup by Nadendla Bhaskara Rao against Chief Minister N.T. Rama Rao in Andhra Pradesh.
The caretaker Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, O. Panneerselvam, has ordered the Chennai police and the director general of police to find out where MLAs owing allegiance to his rival, Sasikala Natarajan, are being held. Sasikala had earlier this week bussed MLAs to “secret locations” across Chennai to prevent “poaching”.
Nadendla Bhaskara Rao, who was the AP Chief Minister for just 30 days (August 16 to September 16, 1984) before NTR was reinstated, had done something similar to get hold of Telugu Desam MLAs supporting NTR after the camp returned from Karnataka to Hyderabad — ahead of a show of strength in the AP Assembly.
Before the Karnataka trip, all 160-plus TD MLAs were taking shelter at Ramakrishna Studio at Golconda crossroads, under the surveillance of Chandrababu Naidu, Venkaiah Naidu, and Jaipal Reddy.
Bhaskara Rao was desperate to somehow get the MLAs to come outside so that he could convince them to vote for him. He called Hyderabad City Police Commissioner K. Vijayarama Rao and East Zone DCP K. Aravinda Rao (now retired DGP) to raid Ramakrishna Studio and ‘somehow’ get the MLAs out. DCP Aravinda Rao indeed went into Ramakrishna Studio and started asking the MLAs whether they were being held captive there, or were there willingly. All the MLAs told him they were there of their own free will and supported NTR. Aravinda Rao was therefore, unable to serve the purpose for which he had been dispatched by Bhaskara Rao.
A furious Bhaskara Rao then ordered the transfer of both Vijayarama Rao and Aravinda Rao and appointed Roddam Prabhakara Rao (also now a retired DGP) as the new Police Commissioner.
And almost 10 years later, it was N.T. Rama Rao’s turn, in August 1995, to try and win back MLAs after a coup in his own family, in which a majority of TD MLAs backed son-in-law Chandrababu Naidu.
The MLAs were holed up in Viceroy Hotel for almost a week. NTR, who was still the Chief Minister, did not order a police raid on the hotel. Instead, he went to the hotel himself along with wife Laxmi Parvathi, on his Chaitanya Ratham (his famous campaign vehicle), and made fervent appeals to his MLAs from the entrance of the hotel.
Police did not allow NTR to go inside the hotel despite repeated requests and NTR returned home without adding to his strength and lost out to Chandrababu Naidu.