JOIN USThe ongoing family feud in the Samajwadi Party shows what happens when there are many claimants to the throne within the family.
In 1994, N T Rama Rao managed to form a Telugu Desam Party(TDP) government upsetting the Congress in Andhra Pradesh. Chandrababu Naidu, his son-in-law, was made the finance minister.
His performance as a minister and NTR’s faith in him saw Naidu eyeing the chief minister’s chair. But NTR’s second wife Lakshmi Parvathi, too, was ambitious.
In August 1995, Naidu staged a revolt against NTR, became chief minister. NTR died within months after the coup. The NTR faction was later led by Laxmi Parvathi. Her supporters separated from the TDP to float a party called TDP (Lakshmi Paravati), but she went into a political oblivion very quickly.
In the DMK
In January 2014 in Tamil Nadu, when DMK chief M Karunanidhi wanted to declare his son M K Stalin as his political heir, elder son M K Alagiri decided to rebel openly against his father.
He vented his anger publicly and his father axed him from his party responsibilities. Till date, there is no patch up but Alagiri has kept a low profile. However, Stalin has not been officially declared his heir.
The DMK chief, however, has said many times that Stalini is his “natural heir”. Earlier, MDMK chief Vaiko had to quit the DMK when he was being seen as a threat to Stalin.
The Maran brothers, grand nephews of Karunanidhi, too had a break up with his family. In May 2007, Dayanidhi Maran was forced to resign from the Union Cabinet.
Later, the two families reached truce to check the influence of Rajathi, the third wife of Karunanidhi and his daughter, Kanimozhi.
Badals of Punjab
In the last 10 years, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal also had to remove his relatives who challenged his son Sukhbir. Parkash Badal’s nephew, Manpreet, who challenged Sukhbir, was ousted from the Punjab Cabinet.
Manpreet floated his own party and then joined the Congress. This delayed Badal formally handing over the baton to Sukhbir.
In Maharashtra, Sharad Pawar’s family politics saw the rift between the NCP chief and his nephew Ajit Pawar.
It increased after his daugher, Supriya Sule, emerged to be her father’s favourite heir apparent. After corruption charges surfaced, Ajit resigned as deputy chief minister.
Similarly, the late BJP leader Gopinath Munde had huge tiffs with his nephew Dhananjay who joined hands with the NCP.
Shiv Sena’s family feuds saw its chief Bal Thackeray’s son and nephew Raj part ways in 2006. Raj set up his own party, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena. The cousins are yet to patch up.