Investment strategy for CMs

PLAIN POLITICS

- ADITI PHADNIS

Why do some chief ministers come to power ruling for decades, while others go home at the end of their term, sometimes never to be heard of again? In other words, what constitutes the political capital of a chief minister? ‘And what gives them a place in history books?

Caste arbitrage to secure the top state job is passe, as explanations go. Ramakrishna Hegde got the job as chief minister of Karnataka because he was an unthreatening Brahmin in alandscape dominated by the clash of powerful and ambitious Vokkaligas and Lingayats. Jayalalithaa got it despite being a Brahmin in a state like Tamil Nadu, where opposition to Brahminism was a political ideology. This kind of politics can get you one spell in the job. But more than one term depends, almost entirely, on what you've done in your first term.