Phase 4: The 2 PM Report: Focus on Telangana and Andhra Pradesh

It was on March 29^th 1951 that Pathala Bhairavi was declared a blockbuster. 12 years later on 29^th March 1963, one of the greatest hits of Telugu film industry, Lava Kusa was released. A decade later, again on 29^th March 1973, the first Telugu social in colour, Desoddharakulu was released to wide spread appreciation. They were all movies that starred the matinee idol N.T. Rama Rao who naturally believed that the date was highly auspicious for him. So when he stood in the club hall on the first floor of new MLA quarters at 2:30 PM on the 29^th of March 1982, the thousands who had gathered were anticipating something historic to be unveiled.

In grand filmy style, he took out a piece of paper from his pocket and read out the name of his party. “Telugu Desam Party” and further announced, “I am a Telugu man. From today onwards, I have decided to devote myself to the cause of our state. I have decided to fight to revive the glory of our cultural heritage and of our language. Therefore, we will call our party Telugu Desam.” Legend has it that Indira Gandhi never really took him seriously when he made his political debut. After all, Andhra Pradesh was one of the very few states that had stood by her even in 1977 when the Janata wave had overtaken the entire country. Even the national media largely discounted his political debut as a mere tamasha.

Unlike MGR in the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu who had the entire Dravidian political movement to support him, NTR did not have any political infrastructure, neither did he have cadre or foot soldiers on the ground. He had to build everything from the scratch. Mr. Rama Rao, contrary to popular belief about his whimsical nature, was a methodical man and highly organized. He had meticulously planned everything before he began his political journey. Thus, within just 9 months of his political debut, he went on to win more than 200 seats (out of 294) in the then undivided Andhra Pradesh assembly which remains a sort of record in Indian electoral politics.

This is the nature of Andhra people where politics is always in a flux and they are constantly experimenting with their choices. Consider this, in the last decade, the now divided states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, have seen 4 completely different parties forming a government; Congress, TDP, YSRCP and TRS (now BRS). Such changes are highly unusual in other geographies. Yet these changes are also top heavy with only the party and leadership at the top changing while local satraps simply moving from one side to the other. For instance, even N.T. Rama Rao derived most of his political infrastructure by borrowing leaders from the Congress party and other established faces.