Hyderabad: Hyderabad has attracted national and international attention again for sequestering lawmakers to prevent poaching by rival parties after the Congress and JD(S) moved their Karnataka MLAs to the city on Friday.
The city had witnessed the sequestering of lawmakers — also colloquially known as “camp politics” — way back in 1984, when deposed chief minister N.T. Rama Rao ordered his aides to keep their flock together.
After Rama Rao successfully foiled the atte-mpts to break his party, many parties across India followed his practice to protect their MLAs from rival influences.
The MLAs camp was once again formed in Hyderabad by N. Chandrababu Naidu in 1995 in his revolt against his party founder and incumbent Chief Minister N.T. Rama Rao.
Nearly 33 years after the first sequestering, Hyde-rabad has become hub for Congress MLAs from the neighbouring state of Karnataka to protect their MLAs from being approached by the BJP.
The legislators were sequestered for the first time in 1984 after then finance minister Nadella Bhaskara Rao revolted against chief minister Rama Rao, when he was away in the US for a heart surgery. Bhaskara Rao became the chief minister with the support of the Congress.
Following the directions of NTR from the US, the Telugu Desam MLAs were sequestered at his Ramakrishna Studios at Golconda X Roads in the city for six days till NTR returned from the US.
For recreation, the MLAs were showed films starring NTR every day. The camp was guarded by Chandrababu Naidu, Jan-ata Party leader S. Jaipal Reddy (now with the Congress) and BJP leader M. Venkaiah Naidu.
After the return of NTR, he paraded all his MLAs before then president Giani Zail Singh.
Following their return, NTR flew them to Janata Party ruled Karnataka, where they were camped at a resort in Nandi Hills , which is 60 km from Bengaluru.
The camp was hosted by by then Karnataka CM Ramakrishna Hegde for 25 days, the longest political sequestering ever in India. The camp ended after NTR was reinstated. The politics have come a full circle after 33 years with Hyder-abad hosting Karnataka’s Janata Dal (Secular) — a remnant of the Janata Party — and the Congress.
The second sequestering of legislators was organised by Mr Naidu at a hotel in Hyderabad in 1995. The operation was successful with Rama Rao getting losing the trust vote and Mr Naidu become the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh.
