In the run up to the Lok Sabha elections earlier this year, there was a huge controversy when
Sanjay Baru, the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s media advisor, released a book
The Accidental Prime Minister: The Making and Unmaking of Manmohan Singh. In this book, he alleged that the PM did not exercise full control over the government and was remote-controlled by the UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi.
However, this was not a one-off case in Indian politics. There have many instances of ‘
accidental chief ministers’ taking office in various states. The latest example is Bihar’s new
Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi. Following the dismal performance of his party, the Janata Dal (United), in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections,
Nitish Kumar played the tried and tested caste card and anointed Manjhi – who belongs to the Musahar caste (the most backward caste among the Dalits) – as the state’s chief minister. Manjhi is not known for his administrative skills and is widely regarded as Nitish’s ‘puppet.’ BJP’s
Sushil Kumar Modi, Bihar’s former deputy chief minister, even dubbed Manjhi as "
dummy chief minister."
In Bihar itself, on July 25, 1997, the then Chief Minister Lalu Yadav was forced to quit after an arrest warrant was issued against him in connection with the fodder scam case. In order to retain hold on power, he brazenly installed his wife Rabri Devi, who was not only a political novice but was also illiterate, as chief minister of Bihar.
Rabri Devi earned the dubious distinction of being the first illiterate chief minister of a state. Interestingly, in the press conference following her swearing-in ceremony, Lalu asked reporters not to pose tricky questions to her as she was new to politics and a “seedhi-saadi aurat.”
In the neighbouring state of Jharkhand, Madhu Koda, an independent MLA, was propped up as chief minister by Lalu Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and the Congress. It was Lalu’s masterstroke to keep the BJP away from power. It was also for the first time that an independent MLA was made the chief minister of a state.
He is known only for the large-scale corruption that marked his rule. Koda allegedly took huge bribes for illegally allotting iron ore and coal mining contracts as the chief minister of the state. According to estimates, Koda and his associates accumulated Rs 4,000 crore in the mining scam. He was also arrested and he is currently out on bail.
In Maharashtra,
Prithviraj Chavan was appointed the chief minister after Ashok Chavan had to step down from the chief minister's post after the allegations of his involvement in the Adarsh Housing Society scam. Prithviraj Chavan, who is not a significant political figure, has still not been able to have a firm grip either on the party or the government. He had no experience of the state politics of Maharashtra and was directly paratrooped as the state’s chief minister. Although he has been in politics for almost three decades, he was never a member of the state legislature.
Sadanand Gowda, who is the current railway minister, was the self-proclaimed ‘accidental chief minister' as he had himself once admitted that he was an accidental CM. He said he had never thought he would become chief minister one day. Gowda said his “politics of love” was the reason behind his accomplishment.
