Vice President V V Giri's resignation in 1969 triggered political upheavals that saw the ruling party defy its own presidential nominee, the expulsion of a sitting prime minister by her party president, and a historic split in the Indian National Congress, recounts Utkarsh Mishra.
Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar's surprise resignation from his post in the middle of his term has sent rumour mills running.
While Dhankhar cited health reasons for his sudden decision, few are ready to buy this.
Although the 'actual' reasons for Dhankhar's resignation might be elusive right now, the picture was not as bleak the first time a vice president of India gave up his post.
It was Vice President Varahagiri Venkata Giri, who resigned from his office and that of Acting President, to take part in the presidential race necessitated by the passing away of then President Dr Zakir Hussain in May 1969.
V V Giri's decision resulted in dramatic developments in which a party defeated its official candidate in the presidential elections and, consequently, a party president expelled the sitting prime minister, leading to a split in the grand old party of India.
Here's the story of those unprecedented political manoeuvres that took place in 1969.
Drubbing in Elections
By the general elections of 1967, the mass appeal of the Indian National Congress was much diminished.
Over the past few years, India had seen wars with China and Pakistan and the deaths of two sitting prime ministers -- Jawaharlal Nehru and Lal Bahadur Shastri. These destabilising events resulted in a fall in the rate of economic growth, a reduction in domestic savings and investments, and the halving of US aid.
The economic downfall was coupled with a rise in corruption and black marketing.
As a result, discontent grew among the urban and middle class as well as in the countryside.
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was still hemmed in by what was called the Congress syndicate, comprising senior leaders like party president K Kamaraj, then Karnataka chief minister S Nijalingappa, Union minister S K Patil, Bengal leader Atulya Ghosh and others.
In fact, the Syndicate preferred Indira over a much senior Morarji Desai for the prime ministership after Shastri's death because they thought they would be able to exercise control over her. And they did, initially. So much so that Indira was termed a goongi gudiya by socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia.
However, the tension within the party, coupled with the bleak economic situation in the country, resulted in the Congress registering its worst performance in the general elections since Independence.
Its vote percentage dropped from 44.5 to 40.7, and its number of seats fell from 361 to 283.
Moreover, prominent leaders lost their seats, including Kamaraj and Ghosh.
Congress in Disarray
The drubbing in the 1967 elections forced serious introspection within the party on how to reverse the decline and regain popular appeal.
The party was broadly divided into two camps that differed over the solution.
The right wing within the party, that included the Syndicate, was tilted towards 'dilution of planning, lesser emphasis on the public sector and greater encouragement to private enterprise and foreign capital, strengthening relations with Western countries and suppression of the Left and protest movements'.
Whereas the left wing, that included the Young Turks (which included future prime minister Chandra Shekhar, future vice president Krishna Kant, future minister Mohan Dharia) advocated for more radical policies that furthered 'Nehru's socialistic agenda.'
While Indira Gandhi initially tried to strike a balance between the two factions, she later shifted towards the Left, as she wanted to project her own ideological image 'more assertively' as being independent of the Syndicate.
Moreover, her trusted advisers knew that the populist policies of the Left held more appeal among the masses than the cautious approach of the Right.
This brought Indira in direct confrontation with the Syndicate.
Schism Wide Open
Along with trusted aides Jagjivan Ram (who later fell out with her) and Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed (who later became President to sign on the dotted line on the proclamation of the Emergency in June 1975) and other members of the so-called 'kitchen cabinet', Indira started challenging the Syndicate.
However, she was not successful initially.
In 1967, when Kamaraj's term as party president ended, Indira wanted Gulzarilal Nanda, who had served as the acting prime minister twice, to succeed him.
But the Syndicate favoured Nijalingappa and he was elected. Indira was also not able to have 'her people' elected to the Congress Working Committee.
Nonetheless, her 10-point programme, which included the radical suggestion of nationalisation of banks, was passed unanimously by the CWC in 1969.
In his autobiography, Nijalingappa has written that despite being opposed to such radical measures, the Syndicate accepted the 10-point programme because they were not against its spirit and wanted to avoid unnecessary confrontation.
Also, as per some historians, Indira had assured more vocal opponents like Desai -- who was the finance minister -- that the process of nationalisation would be gradual and would be further discussed.
However, soon after, matters came to a head as Indira took away Desai's portfolio, citing reservations over his ability to implement the programme.
Desai resigned from the Cabinet, and the Syndicate made no secret of their disapproval of Indira's decision. She, however, was ready to take Desai back into the Cabinet but refused to reinstate his finance portfolio.
The party was staring at a split. However, a bigger showdown was still ahead.
Presidential Race
After Dr Zakir Hussain's death in May 1969, Vice President V V Giri assumed charge as acting President.
The event necessitated a presidential election within six months.
Both factions of the Congress -- the Syndicate and its allies, and the Indira loyalists -- wanted a person favourable to them in the office, so that in the event of a split, they could rely on him to call their faction to form the government with the support of like-minded Opposition parties.
Indira wanted the party to declare V V Giri or Jagjivan Ram as the presidential nominee.
The Syndicate, on the other hand, supported Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy, former Union minister, former Congress president, former Andhra Pradesh chief minister, and the sitting Speaker of the Lok Sabha.
Reddy, who was a member of Indira's Cabinet till 1967, was dropped by her after the elections, which miffed his Syndicate aides.
As per then Congress president Nijalingappa, he went to the PM to express his displeasure but she said she 'didn't like' Reddy although she agreed to make Reddy the Speaker.
In the end, Reddy became the Congress presidential nominee with the Syndicate's backing, which Indira also accepted.
Nonetheless, she prompted V V Giri to contest the election as an Independent.
Consequently, V V Giri resigned on July 20, 1969.
The word went around that the PM didn't want Reddy to be elected and favoured V V Giri.
Indira issued an appeal to Congress parliamentarians and legislators to 'vote as per their conscience' and 'not necessarily toe the party line'.
She also refrained from issuing a whip to vote for Reddy.
In the closely fought election, V V Giri emerged victorious with a narrow margin, securing a majority on counting the second preference votes.
The Congress Splits
Indira loyalists accused Nijalingappa of 'striking a secret deal' with Opposition parties like the Jana Sangh to ensure Reddy's election.
Nijalingappa, however, has rejected these allegations in his autobiography.
He writes that the Congress had such a huge majority in Parliament and state legislatures that the election of the party's official candidate was a done deal.
There was, therefore, no need for the party president to approach the Opposition to secure the necessary votes.
However, he recalls calling the Congress chief ministers 'every night' to ensure that party members from their states voted for the official candidate.
Nijalingappa writes that he was disappointed by the chief ministers of Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh -- Kasu Brahmananda Reddy and Chandra Bhanu Gupta -- who kept assuring him of votes till the last day, but the majority of legislators from their states voted for V V Giri, ensuring his victory.
Angered by Reddy's defeat, Nijalingappa expelled Indira Gandhi from the Congress for flouting party discipline.
Indira responded by splitting the party, and setting up a rival organisation called the Congress-R -- R standing for requisitionists. The other faction came to be known as Congress-O, i.e., organisation.
Indira's faction secured the support of 220 party MPs while the Congress-O was left with 68. Of the 705 members of the All India Congress Committee, 446 sided with Indira.
With the presidential election manouevre, the 'goongi gudiya' had defeated the stalwarts.