The North, especially Uttar Pradesh, has always dominated the top-level politics in India. How they ended up becoming the kingmakers of the country is the story of emerging inter-state politics in India. Individually the members of the Syndicate were important but minor players in the party, together they proved to be a formidable force. The Syndicate wanted someone more malleable, someone they could control. Had he become the Prime Minister, his domination would have been complete, leaving the Syndicate members to the fringes. However, his very prominence was a threat to the Syndicate. Desai was the most prominent leader in the party after Nehru and most likely to succeed him. It wasn’t so much that they agreed on who should fill these posts as who should not – Morarji Desai. The two questions in front of them were who shall be the next Prime Minister and who will become the next president of the Congress Party, a post that would be tremendously important after Nehru’s death. Ostensibly, the leaders were at Tirupathi to offer worship at the shrine, but secretly they were together to discuss the future of the country and how to shape it after Nehru. Soon, along with a Maharashtra leader SK Patil, they will be come to known as the Syndicate. Together, these men controlled the power of the Congress party in non-Hindi states. These were K Kamaraj, the former Chief Minister of Madras, Sanjiva Reddy, an Andhra leader, Nijalingappa, the Chief Minister of Mysore and Atulya Ghosh, the president of Bengal Congress Committee. For the first time in sixteen years since independence, New Delhi was rife with speculation about the question – “After Nehru, who?” To answer this question, four men met at the Tirupathi Temple in the beginning of October, 1963. Hence this post:īy the end of 1963, Nehru was dying. After my last post “ How Indira Gandhi became the Prime Minister: Prelude to the Congress Split” some of the readers pressed upon me to write a deeper explanation for the phenomenon known as the Syndicate.
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