Arun Jaitley. File photoArun Jaitley has quickly discounted the fond hope of Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal that Jaitley would become the deputy prime minister in a Narendra modi led union cabinet. Badal, the leader of Akali Dal, the major ally of BJP in Punjab had told an election rally in Amritsar, from where Jaitley is contesting, that the BJP stalwart could be the big hope of Punjab as he would be deputy prime minister.
Jaitley, leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha has been shadow boxing with leader of opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and knows how intense the rivalries and jealous at the top in the saffron party. There are other number two aspirants like BJP president Rajnath Singh, former president Nitin Gadkari who is the nominee of the powerful Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Sushma herself.
The BJP leaders also know how Narendra Modi has refused to groom and project a number two in Gujarat and even now there is uncertainty on who would be made Gujarat chief minster if Modi were to move to the centre after the elections.
Barring Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, none of the six other deputy prime ministers in India's history got the job automatically. When India became independent in August 1947, Patel was seen as the number two in the Congress party, and Nehru had to name him as prime minister. Yet when the constituent assembly debated the new constitution, the post of deputy prime minister was not mentioned in the constitution at all. Patel remained deputy prime minister till his death in December 1950, ten months after the constitution was adopted.
But during the remaining 14 years of Nehru's term no one else was named as deputy prime minister, and neither did Lal Bahadur Shastri have an official number two. Indira Gandhi, who defeated Morarji Desai in two leadership contests, reluctantly made Desai her deputy prime minister after the March 1967 elections and gave him finance. But she never trusted him, and when she wanted to implement the socialist agenda, took away finance portfolio, forcing Desai's exit in 1969.
Interestingly, when Morarji himself became prime minister in 1977 he did not want a deputy prime minister, despite a strong suggestion from Jayaprakash Narayan and Acharya Kripalani, who led the popular agitation against Indira Gandhi which brought Janata Party to power. Desai fought with his number two Charan Singh continuously, and when his government was tottering he was forced to make Charan Singh and Jagjivan Ram as deputy prime ministers in 1979. Charan Singh lasted for two months and Ram for two and half months. When Desai lost power, Charan Singh became minority prime minister in coalition with Reddy Congress, with outside support of Indira Gandhi. In his short lived government, Y B Chavan of Reddy Congress was deputy prime minister for just 36 days.
Drama surrounded appointment of Devi Lal as deputy prime minister in the VP Singh government. to outmaneuver Chandrashekhar who wanted to be prime minister, the Janata Dal elected Devi Lal as leader of parliamentary party, but he nominated V P Singh as prime minister, to the disgust of Chandrashekar. Devi Lal was made deputy prime minister by V P Singh, but soon Devi Lal called the prime minister as spineless and was sacked. Within weeks Singh was toppled and Chandrashekhar led a hopeless minority government with Congress support. Devi Lal was his deputy prime minister during the seven month government.
When L K Advani, who had the Ayodhya movement of BJP, announced A B Vajpayee would be BJP prime ministerial nominee in 1995, it was widely expected he would be the automatic choice for deputy prime ministership in a Vajpayee government. While Advani was not in parliament during the 13 day government of Vajpayee, he was part of the core team in 1998 and 1999, when Vajpayee won elections. But Advani had to be content with being a minister till 2002, when he was finally elevated as deputy prime minister.
While Jaitley knows the perils of being projected as number two to a strong man who does not like such assumptions, his supporters are tickled that their leader has drawn attention in his first direct election.
Tailpiece: Interestingly, till Advani was promoted, the NDA ministers were listed by alphabetical order. Advani came second after Vajpayee, followed by Ananth Kumar, which caused heartburn for others senior to Ananth Kumar like Murli Manohar Joshi, Jaswant Singh, and Yashwant Sinha. The UPA government however named Pranab Mukherjee as number two, while from 2012 it is A K Antony.
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