“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 yr earlier than he turned the PM, Rao had thought his political profession was virtually over. He packed his baggage, books, and beloved laptop and despatched them to his second son’s residence in Hyderabad. He wrote to a monastery in Tamil Nadu, saying he was contemplating turning into its head monk — the place was supplied to him earlier, however he had put it off.

So what modified? How did PV Narasimha Rao first turn into Congress chief after which the prime minister? We have a look.

On the verge of exit

In 1990, Rao heard that then Congress chief Rajiv Gandhi was planning to transition to a youthful Cabinet if the occasion gained the following yr’s Lok Sabha elections, in response 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 end result, the Congress chief started to plan his post-retirement life. But on May 21, 1991, Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated at a marketing campaign cease in Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu. The tragedy modified the course of Rao’s political journey.

The return

Rao arrived at 10 Janpath for the funeral a couple of hours after he received the information of Rajiv Gandhi’s demise. There, senior Congress chief Pranab Mukherjee took him apart and informed him that there was a basic settlement that Rao ought to be the following Congress President and “it would be good to clinch it today itself, so as to forestall rumours of internal struggle etc,” Rao famous in his diary.

Although he was glad to listen to the information, Rao didn’t reveal his pleasure and saved the knowledge near his chest.

Sitapati in his ebook 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 solely this, there have been a number of different aspirants for the place of the occasion president in addition to Rao. These had been Arjun Singh, ND Tiwari, Sharad Pawar, and Madhav Rao Scindia.

Sonia Gandhi, who was requested to select the successor, knew every of the candidates effectively. According to Sitapati, Maharashtra’s chief minister Sharad Pawar was “young and pushy” however had betrayed the Congress occasion by splitting the state unit to turn into CM in 1978. Arjun Singh, former CM of Madhya Pradesh, and Madhav Rao Scindia had been opposed by rival factions inside the occasion. The most evident selection was ND Tiwari, former CM of Uttar Pradesh. However, as Rao talked about in his diary, Tiwari had earlier disobeyed Rajiv Gandhi’s instruction and contested the continuing Lok Sabha elections (he went on to lose the election).

Therefore, Rao turned the go-to possibility for the following Congress President. Writing for The Indian Express, Sanjay Baru famous: “Rao’s candidature additionally benefited from the agency help he secured from President R Venkataraman, who adopted a brand new precept of inviting the chief of the most important political formation to kind a authorities with out looking for a proof of numbers.

In guaranteeing this, Kerala’s Okay Karunakaran performed a component. Moreover, a considerable variety of Congress MPs had been elected from peninsular India and so they rooted for India’s first south Indian PM.”

Baru added that on the time Rao was additionally among the many most skilled Congress leaders — he had been CM of a state, basic secretary of the occasion and Union minister for exterior affairs, defence, residence and human assets growth.

Rao’s identify for Congress president was additionally urged by PN Haksar, who was Indira Gandhi’s principal secretary. According to Sitapati’s ebook, Haksar argued that Rao was an “intellectual who didn’t have enemies and could keep the party united.” The different candidates may break up the occasion, Haksar indicated.

On May 29, 1991, Rao was elected the Congress President. The subsequent month, when the occasion made a comeback by successful 232 of 487 seats in nationwide elections, Rao turned the prime minister.