Narendra Modi: The RSS seconded Modi to the BJP in 1987. While Shankarsingh Vaghela and Keshubhai Patel
were the established names in the Gujarat BJP at that time, Modi rose to
prominence after organising Murli Manohar Joshi's Ekta
yatra (journey for unity).His electoral strategy was central to BJP's
victory in the 1995 state elections.
Modi became the General Secretary of the BJP and was transferred
to New Delhi where he was assigned responsibility for the party's activities
in Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. Vaghela,
who had threatened to break away from BJP in 1995, defected from the BJP after
he lost the 1996 Lok Sabha elections. In 1998, Modi was promoted to the
post of National Secretary of the BJP. While selecting candidates for the 1998
state elections in Gujarat, Modi sidelined people who were loyal to Vaghela and
rewarded those who favoured Patel, thus ending factional divisions within the
party. His strategies were key to winning those elections.
First Term (2001-2002)
Patel's failing health, allegations of abuse of power, corruption
and poor administration, as well as a loss of BJP seats in by-elections, prompted
the BJP's national leadership to seek a new candidate for the office of chief
minister. Patel's position was also damaged by the devastating Bhuj
Earthquake of 2001, the effects of which his administration struggled to
handle. Modi, who had aired his misgivings about Patel's administration,
was chosen as a replacement. L. K. Advani,
a senior leader of the BJP, however, did not want to ostracise Patel and was
worried about Modi's lack of experience in governance. It was suggested that
Modi should be made the deputy chief minister in a government led by Patel,
upon which Modi informed Advani and Atal Bihari Vajpayee that he was
"going to be fully responsible for Gujarat or not at all" and
declined the proposal. On 7 October 2001, Modi was appointed the Chief Minister
of Gujarat and was assigned the responsibility to prepare the BJP for elections
in December 2002. As Chief Minister, Modi's ideas of governance revolved around
privatisation and small government, which stood at odds with
what Aditi Phadnis has described as the
"anti–privatisation, anti–globalisation position" of the RSS.
During his second term, Modi's emphasis shifted from Hindutva to
the economic development of Gujarat.[22] Modi's
decisions curtailed the influence of organizations of the Sangh Parivar such as
the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS) and the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP),which had
become entrenched in Gujarat after the decline of Ahmedabad's textile
industry. Modi dropped Gordhan Zadaphia, an ally of his former Sangh
co–worker and VHP state chief Praveen Togadia,
from the cabinet ministry. When the BKS launched a farmers' agitation, Modi
ordered their eviction from houses provided by the state government. Modi's
decision to demolish 200 illegal temples in Gandhinagar deepened
the rift with VHP.[46][47] Various
organisations of the Sangh were no longer consulted or apprised of Modi's
administrative decisions prior to enactment.
Gujarat is a semi-arid state and, according to Tushaar Shah, was
"... never known for agrarian dynamism" but in recent
years has improved its agricultural output substantially, in large part
due to projects relating to improvement of groundwater supplies
in Saurashtra, Kachchh and the north, as well as efforts to
increase the use of micro-irrigation and to provide more
efficient power supply to farms. Public irrigation measures in the central and
southern areas, such as the Sardar Sarovar Project, have not been so
successful in achieving their aims.
Development projects
Successive BJP governments under Patel and Modi supported NGOs and
communities in the creation of infrastructure projects for conservation of
groundwater. By December 2008, 500,000 structures had been constructed, of
which 113,738 were check dams. While most check dams remained empty during
the pre-monsoon season,
they helped recharge the aquifers that lie beneath them.60 of the 112 Tehsils which
were found to have over–exploited the groundwater table in
2004 had regained their normal groundwater level by 2010[62] and
Gujarat had managed to increase its groundwater levels at a time when they were
falling in all other Indian states. As a result, production of
genetically-modified Bt cotton, which could now be irrigated using tube wells,
increased to become the largest in India.[61] The
boom in cotton production and utilization of semi–arid land saw the agriculture
growth rate of Gujarat increase to 9.6% in the period 2001–2007. For the decade
2001–2010, Gujarat recorded aCompound annual growth rate of
10.97%, the highest among all Indian states.
Arvind Kejrival:
Early career
Kejriwal joined the Indian Revenue Service in 1995
after qualifying through the Civil Services Examination.[3] In 2000,
he was granted two years' paid leave to pursue higher education on condition
that upon resuming his work he would not resign from the Service for at least
three years. Failure to abide by that condition would require him to repay the
salary given during the leave period. He rejoined in 2003 and worked for 18
months before taking unpaid leave for 18 months.[4] In
February 2006, he resigned from his position as a Joint Commissioner of Income
Tax in New Delhi.[3] The Government of India claimed
that Kejriwal had violated his original agreement by not working for three
years. Kejriwal said that his 18 months of work and 18 months of unpaid absence
amounted to the stipulated three year period during which he could not resign
and that this was an attempt to malign him due to his involvement with Team Anna, a strand of the
Indian anti-corruption movement. The dispute ran for several year until, in
2011, it was resolved when he paid his way out of the Service with the help of
loans from friends.
Activism
Parivartan
Kejriwal believes "Change
begins with small things". In December 1999, while still in service with
the Income Tax Department, he helped found a movement named Parivartan (which
means "change"), focused on assisting citizens in navigating income
tax, electricity and food ration matters in parts of Delhi. The Parivartan organisation exposed a
fake ration card scam in 2008 but, according to a founder
member, did not have a great impact generally and was largely moribund by 2012.
Right to
Information
Together with Manish Sisodia and
Abhinandan Sekhri, Kejriwal established the Public Cause Research Foundation in
December 2006, donating the prize money he had received from the Ramon
Magsaysay Award as a seed fund.This new body
paid the employees of Parivartan.[7]
Kejriwal has used the Right to
Information Act in corruption cases in many government departments including
the Income Tax Department, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, the Public
Distribution System and the Delhi Electricity Board.
Jan
Lokpal Bill
Kejriwal was the civil society representative
member of the committee constituted by the Government of India to draft
a Jan Lokpal bill, following a campaign for introduction of such
legislation that featured Anna Hazare. He had been
arrested for his support of Hazare.
Political career
Kejriwal established the AAP in
November 2012 as he believed that electoral politics was the next logical step
in the fight against corruption. The party name reflects the
phrase Aam Aadmi, or "common
man", whose interests Kejriwal proposed to represent.
He became one of the five most
mentioned Indian politicians on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter in the
run-up to the Delhi legislative assembly election, 2013.This
was the first election contested by the AAP.
Chief
Minister
In the Delhi election, Kejriwal
defeated incumbent Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit in her constituency of New Delhi by a margin of 25,864 votes.The party
as a whole won 28 of the 70 available seats, finishing in second place.
The AAP then announced its
intention to form a minority government in the hung parliament, with what
Dikshit described as "not unconditional" support from the Indian
National Congress. Kejriwal was sworn in as the
second-youngest chief minister of Delhi on 28 December 2013, after Chaudhary Brahm Prakash who
became chief minister at the age of 34.He is in charge of Delhi's Home
Ministry, Power, Planning, Finance, Vigilance ministries.
Jayalalithaa:
Although there have been claims
that Ramachandran, who had been chief minister for the state since 1977, was
instrumental in introducing Jayalalithaa to politics, she has denied it.[1][14] In 1982,
she joined the AIADMK, which was founded by Ramachandran.[15]Her maiden public
speech Pennin Perumai (the Pride of Women) was
delivered at the political conference of the AIADMK that year.[16][17] In 1983,
she became propaganda secretary for the party and was selected as AIADMK
candidate in the by-election for the Tiruchendur Assembly constituency.[15]
Ramachandran wanted her to be a member
of the Rajya Sabha because
of her fluency in English.[18] Jayalalithaa
was nominated and elected to that body as a Member of Parliament in 1984 and
retained her seat until 1989.[19] She was
successful in her role as Propaganda Secretary and this caused resentment among
high-ranking members of the party. Those members engineered a rift between her
and Ramachandran, among the alleged consequences of which was that Ramachandran
stopped Jayalalithaa writing about her personal life in a Tamil magazine.
Despite these machinations, she remained admired by the rank and file of the
party.[1]
She was elected to the Tamil Nadu
legislative assembly in 1989 as a representative of the Bodinayakkanur (State Assembly
Constituency). This election saw the Jayalalithaa-led faction of the
AIADMK win 27 seats and Jayalalithaa became the first woman to be elected Leader
of the Opposition. In February 1989, the two factions of ADMK merged
and they unanimously accepted Jayalalitha as their leader and the "Two
leaves" symbol of the party was restored.[19] On 25 March 1989, quoted as one
of the worst incidents to have happened in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly,
there was heavy violence inside the house among the ruling DMK party members
and the opposition. There were allegedly rude remarks made by Karunanidhi, the
chief minister, on Jayalilatha. The heated conversation lead to some of the
ADMK members tearing the budget report to be read by the ruling party. Mikes
were broken and shoes were thrown at Jayalalitha. At the peak of the situation,
when Jayalalitha was about to leave the house, Durai Murugan, a DMK minister,
was seen pulling her saree. She took a vow that she would not attend the house
until the conditions are fit for women to attend, which is seen as a section of
media as "not until until I enter the house as a Chief Minister".
Though some sections of media term it as a theatrics launched by Jayalalitha,
it got a lot of media coverage and sympathy from the public.[25][26][27] During the 1989 general
elections, the ADMK allied with the Congress party and had a significant
victory. The ADMK, under her leadership, won the by-elections in Marungapuri,
Madurai East and Peranamallur assembly constituencies.
First
term as Chief Minister, 1991
In 1991, following the
assassination of Rajiv Gandhi just days
before the elections, her alliance with the Indian
National Congressenabled her to ride the wave of sympathy that gave
the coalition victory. The ADMK alliance with the Congress won 225
out of the 234 seats contested and won all 40 constituencies in the centre. Re-elected
to the assembly, she became the first elected female chief minister and the
youngest ever chief minister of Tamil Nadu, serving the full tenure from 24
June 1991 to 12 May 1996. In 1992, her government introduced the
"Cradle Baby Scheme". At that time the ratio of male to female in
some parts of Tamil Nadu was skewed by the practice of female infanticide and
the abortion of female foetuses. The government established centres in some
areas, these being equipped to receive and place into adoption unwanted female
babies. The scheme was extended in 2011. Her party had 26 elected
members to the assembly. Her government was the first to introduce police
stations operated solely by women. She introduced 30 per cent quota for women
in all police jobs and established as many as 57 all-women police stations.
There were other all-women establishments like libraries, stores, banks and
co-operative elections.
Second
term as Chief Minister, 2001
Jayalalithaa was barred from
standing as a candidate in the 2001 elections because she had been found guilty
of criminal offences, including allegedly obtaining property belonging to a
state-operated agency called TANSI. Although she appealed to the Supreme Court,
having been sentenced to five years' imprisonment, the matter had not been
resolved at the time of the elections. Despite this, the AIADMK won a
majority and she was installed as Chief Minister as a non-elected member of the
state assembly on 14 May 2001.
Her appointment was legally
voided in September 2001 when the Supreme Court ruled that she could not hold
it whilst convicted of criminal acts. O. Panneerselvam, a
minister in her party, was subsequently installed as the Chief Minister.
However, his government was purported to have been puppeted and
micro-managed by Jayalalithaa.
Subsequently, in March 2002,
Jayalalithaa assumed the position of Chief Minister once more, having been
acquitted of some charges by the Madras High Court.This
cleared the way for her to contest a mid-term poll to the Andipatti constituency,
after the sitting MLA for the seat, gave up his membership, which she won by a
handsome margin. India's first company of female police commandos was set up in
Tamil Nadu in 2003. They underwent the same training as their male
counterparts, covering the handling of weapons, detection and disposal of
bombs, driving, horseriding, and adventure sports.
Third
term as Chief Minister, 2011
In April 2011 the AIADMK was part
of a 13-party alliance that won the 14th state assembly elections. Jayalalithaa was
sworn in as the chief minister of Tamil Nadu for the third time on 16 May 2011,
having been elected unanimously as the leader of the AIADMK party subsequent to
those elections. On 19 December 2011, Jayalalithaa expelled her long-time close
aide Sasikala Natarajan and 13
others from the AIADMK. Most of the party members welcomed her decision, and on
2 February 2012, Tehelka magazine
claimed that Natarajan and some of her relatives were conspiring to kill her by
poisoning her food over a period of time.The matter was resolved by 31 March,
when Natarajan was reinstated as a party member after issuing a written
apology.
Rahul Gandhi:
In March 2004, Rahul Gandhi
announced his entry into politics by announcing that he would contest the May
2004 elections, standing for his father's former constituency of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh in the Lok Sabha, India's lower
house of Parliament. The seat had been held by his mother until
she transferred to the neighbouring seat of Rae Bareilly. The Congress
had been doing poorly in Uttar Pradesh, holding only 10 of the 80 Lok Sabha
seats in the state at the time. At the time, this move generated surprise among
political commentators, who had regarded his sister Priyanka as being
the more charismatic and likely to succeed. It generated speculation that the
presence of a young member of India's most famous political family would
reinvigorate the Congress party's political fortunes among India's youthful
population In his first interview with foreign media, Rahul Gandhi portrayed
himself as a uniter of the country and condemned "divisive" politics
in India, saying that he would try to reduce caste and religious tensions.
Rahul Gandhi won, retaining the
family stronghold with a margin of over 100,000. Until
2006 he held no other office.
Rahul Gandhi and his sister, who
is married to Robert Vadra,
managed their mother's campaign for re-election to Rae Bareilly in 2006,
which was won easily with a margin greater than 400,000 votes. He was a
prominent figure in the Congress campaign for the 2007 Uttar Pradesh Assembly
elections; Congress, however, won only 22 seats with 8.53% of votes.
Rahul Gandhi was appointed
General Secretary of the All
India Congress Committee on 24 September 2007 in a
reshuffle of the party secretariat. In the same reshuffle, he was
also given charge of the Indian Youth Congress and the National Students Union of India. In 2008,
senior Congress leader Veerappa Moily mentioned “Rahul-as-PM” idea when the PM
of India Manmohan Singh was still abroad.
In July 2012, Union Law Minister, Salman Khurshid stated
that Rahul Gandhi should provide a "new ideology" to meet the present
day challenges, the Congress party was facing.
On 19 January 2013, in a party
conclave of AICC,
Rahul Gandhi formally took charge of Congress Vice President. He was elevated
to the post of Vice President at the party's Jaipur conclave. As
vice-president, he is second only to party President and his motherSonia Gandhi.
On 27 September 2013, Rahul
Gandhi surprised everyone by openly criticizing Prime Minister of India and his
government for coming out with an ordinance to undo the effect of the order
passed by Hon'ble Supreme Court of India by which convicted criminals could not
contest election.
His rise to the top of the
Congress Party has not been without controversy. As a member of the Nehru–Gandhi family,
many, such as his political opponents in the BJP and AAP see him
as a symbol of dynastic politics in the
Congress Party.
Youth politics
In September 2007 when he was
appointed general secretary in charge of the Indian Youth Congress (IYC) and
the National Students Union of India (NSUI), Rahul Gandhi promised to reform
youth politics. In his attempt to prove himself thus, in November 2008 Rahul
Gandhi held interviews at his 12, Tughlak Lane residence in New Delhi to
handpick at least 40 people who will make up the think-tank of the Indian Youth
Congress (IYC), an organisation that he has been keen to transform since he was
appointed general secretary in September 2007.
Under Rahul Gandhi, IYC and NSUI
has seen a dramatic increase in members from two lakhs to twenty five lakhs. The
Indian Express wrote in 2011, "Three years later, as another organisational
reshuffle is in the offing, Rahul’s dream remains unrealised with party
veterans manipulating internal elections in the Youth Congress and a host of
people with questionable background gaining entry into it."
2009 elections
In the 2009
Lok Sabha elections, Rahul Gandhi retained his Amethi seat by
defeating his nearest rival by a margin of over 333,000 votes. Rahul Gandhi was
credited with the Congress revival in Uttar Pradesh where they won 21 out of
the total 80 Lok Sabha seats.He spoke at 125 rallies across the country in six
weeks. The nation wide elections defied the predictions made by pre-poll
predictions and exit polls and gave a clear mandate to the incumbent Congress
government (80 seats gained).
2012
Assembly elections
Rahul Gandhi campaigned during
the 2012 Assembly elections in the
politically crucial Uttar Pradesh election for
almost two months, holding 200 rallies. However Congress emerged as the fourth
party in the state, winning 28 seats, an increase of six seats from the
previous 2007 elections. Out of the
15 seats in the Amethi parliamentary constituency, Congress won 2 of the 15
seats.
Congress activists defended the
result in Uttar Pradesh, saying "there’s a big difference between state
elections and national polls"[citation
needed], and pointing out the turn around attributed to Rahul Gandhi
in the 2009 Lok Sabha national elections in the state. However, Rahul Gandhi
publicly accepted responsibility for the result in an interview after the
result was declared.
In the Gujarat assembly elections held
later in the year, Gandhi was not made the head of the election campaign. This
was seen and regarded by opponents as an admission of defeat and was termed as
a tactic to avoid blame of defeat. Congress won 57 seats in the assembly of
182, which was 2 less than the previous elections in 2007. Later in bypolls, Congress
lost 4 more seats to BJP.
