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Journalism of Courage
WHEN Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) founder S Ramadoss and his son and PMK president Anbumani Ramadoss clashed publicly at the party’s general council meeting in Villupuram last month, it was over Ramadoss’s attempts to make his daughter Gandhimathi’s son Mukundan the head of the party’s youth wing.
Ramadoss Sr eventually prevailed, with Gandhimathi’s long quest to ensure her son a place in the party at last meeting success. As per PMK sources, Gandhimathi earlier demanded a ticket from Cuddalore for Mukundan in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. “Later, she asked for a ticket in the Vikravandi bypoll. She wants to secure a post for Mukundan while her father is still alive, fearing Anbumani might not support it later,” a PMK leader says.
Incidentally, when Ramadoss founded the PMK, he had promised that neither he nor his family members would ever hold a position in the party. However, if that is one of the least kept promises in politics, what is also true is that – like Gandhimathi – politician daughters tend to get brushed aside when time comes to pass on the baton.
So while Anbumani’s main objection to Mukundan was his “inexperience”, he himself stands tall on Ramadoss Sr’s shoulders, who catapulted him to Union ministry in 2004 at the age of 36, making him its youngest minister.
The “preference” for sons runs across parties and regions. In Congress circles, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has always been seen as the natural inheritor to the Nehru-Gandhi political legacy, but had to bide her time for even electoral politics till last year, reportedly because Sonia Gandhi wanted son Rahul to take up the mantle.
In Bihar, Lalu Prasad’s eldest child, daughter Misa Bharti, never hid her political ambitions but, when the time came for the RJD chief to pass on party reins, he preferred son Tejashwi Yadav. Made the deputy chief minister at the age of 34 when the RJD held power with the JD(U) in 2022-24, he is now the undisputed heir of Lalu. Misa has had to be content with being an MP.
Down South, M Kanimozhi didn’t put up much of a fight once it was clear that her stepbrother M K Stalin was the chosen one of their father and DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi. Kanimozhi found herself delegated to Delhi, far away from Chennai, as the DMK’s face in the Capital.
DMK insiders say Kanimozhi is not too happy about Stalin’s son Udhayanidhi now beginning his rise within the party. However, she has kept her qualms to herself, with the example before her of K Alagiri, whose power war with younger brother Stalin ended in his virtual oblivion. Meanwhile, Alagiri’s son ‘Dubai’ Dayanidhi is reportedly gearing up for his political debut.
In neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, Y S Sharmila, the daughter of the late Congress titan Y S Rajasekhar Reddy (or YSR), found herself out in the cold when she decided to rebel against her brother and former Andhra CM Jagan Mohan Reddy. With Jagan refusing to share any part of YSR’s legacy with her, Sharmila left for the Congress (along with her mother), a desperate move given the party’s state in Andhra.
In sister state Telangana, former CM K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) doted on his daughter K Kavitha, who won the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, lost in 2019 and got entangled later in the Delhi excise policy scam. However, as far as the political legacy of KCR goes, Kavitha’s brother K T Rama Rao is the clear choice.
In Kerala, where women outnumber men in the population and voters’ list, former chief minister and Congress veteran K Karunakaran’s daughter Padmaja Venugopal tried in vain to find room for herself in the party. Brother K Muraleedharan was named the Congress state president and became a multiple-term MP. Last year, Padmaja joined the BJP, a marginal party in Kerala still.
Another ex-Kerala CM and Congress veteran, Oommen Chandy, was seen as having a promising heir in his daughter Achu Oomen. A large section of the Congress leaders, especially the younger lot, backed her. But, as per Congress sources, the family did not want Achu in politics and, hence, son Chandy Oommen became the Congress candidate from Chandy’s bastion Puthuppally after his death.
Married, Achu now lives in Dubai, far away from politics.
In neighbouring Karnataka, where former prime minister H D Deve Gowda’s JD(S) is virtually a family enterprise, daughters have not found much space though daughter-in-law Anita Kumaraswamy, the wife of ex-CM H D Kumaraswamy, has been an MLA.
Similarly, while both of ex-Karnataka CM B S Yediyurappa’s sons are in politics – B Y Vijayendra is the state BJP chief and is seen as Yediyurappa’s political heir and Raghavendra is a Lok Sabha MP – his two daughters never made it to limelight.
Even in the Northeast, where the status of women in households is better than in other parts, the legacy of former Lok Sabha Speaker and Congress leader P A Sangma fell on son Conrad Sangma. He is the CM of Meghalaya, and the supremo of the National People’s Party (NPP), while Sangma’s daughter Agatha – who still holds the distinction of being among the youngest to have become a minister at the Centre – now heads the Meghalaya child commission.
The rare example of a daughter inheriting the family legacy even when brothers are around is Mehbooba Mufti. She took over the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party after Mufti Mohd Sayeed’s death as younger brother Tassaduq Hussain initially showed little interest in politics.
Supriya Sule is the heir apparent of NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, but in this case, she is the veteran’s only child.
Anupriya Patel was one of four daughters of the late Sonelal Patel, and now heads the Apna Dal that he founded.
Speaking to The Indian Express, she says political dynasties are no different in believing that the son carries forward the family name “while the daughter leaves for her matrimonial home”. “Hence (the belief that) political legacy can be retained only by keeping sons in the forefront,” Patel says, adding that given that all her siblings are sisters, she may not be the right person to talk about gender bias.
A woman politician from a political family in the South agrees with Patel in the son being seen as “the natural inheritor… including when it comes to doing the last rites of parents”. “While there is a glass ceiling for women in every sector, in politics, it’s too strong.”
At the same time, she adds that sometimes, the women do not put up a fight. “It is easy to convince them to make ‘sacrifices’ for the family.”
Shazia Ilmi, a BJP leader from a prominent family, says that if at all some daughters have made it in politics, it is “because they don’t have a brother”. “Otherwise the brother always gets a higher position within the party… When there is a choice, women irrespective of merit, come second.” While wives and daughters-in-law sometimes get catapulted ahead, it is when family patriarchs push for it, Ilmi adds.
On the opposite side of the political spectrum, Kakoli Dastidar Ghosh, senior TMC leader and Lok Sabha MP, says: “It starts from the preference for the male child, which leads to female foeticide, and spreads to different aspects of lives. Women like (TMC chief) Mamata Banerjee and I had to struggle to reach somewhere in politics.”
A Lok Sabha MP, who inherited his father’s political legacy, ahead of his sister, says things will not change “unless the society changes”. But there is hope, he adds. “The women’s reservation Bill could prove a step in that direction.”
Smriti Irani, senior BJP leader and former Union minister, makes a case for her party versus others which revolve around a family. “It is strange that those who expect that parties with political pedigree will ensure equity for female leadership are the ones who disappoint gender advocates the most. In my 25 years of service in the BJP, I have never been treated as part of ‘the female quota’. Sushma ji (Swaraj) was always considered a formidable BJP neta and not just a female leader of the BJP.”
