INTRODUCTION

A Fresh Look at Politics and Practices

The end of Emergency in 1977 was a turning point for India at large and Andhra Pradesh in particular. The hopes, with which the state had come into existence 21 years ago, were put paid to by the overbearing attitude of the Congress high command and conflicts among party factions. When Indira Gandhi clamped Emergency on the nation, the state had just been through two bitter agitations for separate statehood already: one in Telangana in 1969 and another-that convulsed coastal Andhra-in 1972.

When Emergency ended and fresh elections were held in 1978, the old war horses limped away and yielded the battlefield to a new generation of political leaders-young, bold and brash-who would soon grow in stature thereby steering the state through even more turbulent decades. At the end of all this tumult, Andhra Pradesh was left divided and reduced.

This book is a critical appraisal of the events and personalities that shaped the last 40 years of Andhra Pradesh, starting with the advent of Indira Gandhi's Congress (1) government to the state's division in 2014. In these years, the Telugu people have seen 13 chief ministers (CMs); from Marri Chenna Reddy in 1978 down to the present custodians of Andhra and Telangana-the self-reliant Yeduguri Sandinti...................