Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge paid homage to former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao on his 19th death anniversary on Saturday (December 23). In a post on X, Kharge said under Rao’s government, India embarked upon a transformative journey with a series of economic reforms.
“He also made significant contributions to India’s Nuclear programme and a number of foreign policy achievements marked his tenure, including the ‘Look East’ policy,” Kharge added.
Just a year before he became the PM, Rao had thought his political career was almost over. He packed his bags, books, and beloved computer and sent them to his second son’s home in Hyderabad. He wrote to a monastery in Tamil Nadu, saying he was considering becoming its head monk — the position was offered to him earlier, but he had put it off.
So what changed? How did PV Narasimha Rao first become Congress chief and then the prime minister? We take a look.
On the verge of exit
In 1990, Rao heard that then Congress chief Rajiv Gandhi was planning to transition to a younger Cabinet if the party won the next year’s Lok Sabha elections, according to ‘The Man Who Remade India: A Biography of PV Narasimha Rao’, by Vinay Sitapati.
“These whispers resonated with Rao’s own exhaustion with politics. He had won eight consecutive elections, and at sixty-nine, was getting old for the ingratiating namaste,” Sitapati wrote.
As a result, the Congress leader began to plan his post-retirement life. But on May 21, 1991, Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated at a campaign stop in Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu. The tragedy changed the course of Rao’s political journey.
The return
Rao arrived at 10 Janpath for the funeral a few hours after he got the news of Rajiv Gandhi’s demise. There, senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee took him aside and told him that there was a general agreement that Rao should be the next Congress President and “it would be good to clinch it today itself, so as to forestall rumours of internal struggle etc,” Rao noted in his diary.
Although he was glad to hear the news, Rao didn’t reveal his excitement and kept the information close to his chest.
Sitapati in his book wrote: “Rao was wise to be cautious. Seven years earlier, Pranab Mukherjee had broken the queue when prime minister Indira Gandhi was killed, setting himself up as successor. For the sin of a commoner claiming a dynastic right, Pranab was sent to the back of the line. He was only now being rehabilitated.”
Not only this, there were several other aspirants for the position of the party president besides Rao. These were Arjun Singh, ND Tiwari, Sharad Pawar, and Madhav Rao Scindia.
Sonia Gandhiwho was asked to pick the successor, knew each of the candidates well. According to Sitapati, Maharashtra’s chief minister Sharad Pawar was “young and pushy” but had betrayed the Congress party by splitting the state unit to become CM in 1978. Arjun Singh, former CM of Madhya Pradesh, and Madhav Rao Scindia were opposed by rival factions within the party. The most obvious choice was ND Tiwari, former CM of Uttar Pradesh. However, as Rao mentioned in his diary, Tiwari had earlier disobeyed Rajiv Gandhi’s instruction and contested the ongoing Lok Sabha elections (he went on to lose the election).
Therefore, Rao became the go-to option for the next Congress President. Writing for The Indian ExpressSanjay Baru noted: “Rao’s candidature also benefited from the firm support he secured from President R Venkataraman, who adopted a new principle of inviting the leader of the largest political formation to form a government without seeking a proof of numbers.
In ensuring this, Kerala’s K Karunakaran played a part. Moreover, a substantial number of Congress MPs had been elected from peninsular India and they rooted for India’s first south Indian PM.”
Baru added that at the time Rao was also among the most experienced Congress leaders — he had been CM of a state, general secretary of the party and Union minister for external affairs, defence, home and human resources development.
Rao’s name for Congress president was also suggested by PN Haksar, who used to be Indira Gandhi’s principal secretary. According to Sitapati’s book, Haksar argued that Rao was an “intellectual who didn’t have enemies and could keep the party united.” The other candidates might split the party, Haksar indicated.
On May 29, 1991, Rao was elected the Congress President. The next month, when the party made a comeback by winning 232 of 487 seats in national elections, Rao became the prime minister.