Mani Shankar Aiyar and KVP Ramachandra Rao are two Congressmen who have had similar career trajectories towards the latter part of their political careers.
Mani Shankar Aiyar has served as Union Minister and was a staunch follower of Rajiv Gandhi who highly valued Aiyar’s advice and considered him a part of his inner circle. However, Aiyar fell out of favour with the Gandhis after Rajiv’s death, especially Rahul Gandhi.
In 2023, Aiyar wanted to contest the Lok Sabha elections and met Sonia Gandhi who seemed amenable to his request but Rahul Gandhi apparently vetoed the proposal putting an end to any political aspirations of Aiyar once and for all.
Similarly, KVP Ramachandra Rao was the right-hand man of late Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Rajasekhar Reddy and was considered to be his ‘shadow’.
However, following the death of Rajasekhar Reddy, the Congress was wiped out in Andhra Pradesh post-bifurcation and KVP became a non-entity which was ironical given his once ‘supreme status’.
More importantly though, KVP was completely shunned by YS Jagan, son of Rajasekhar Reddy who went on to form his own political Party and became the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh from 2019-2024.
Thus, in Mani Shankar Aiyar and KVP, we have two Congress stalwarts totally trusted by fathers (Rajeev and YSR) but comprehensively rejected by their sons (Rahul and Jagan).
