The recent episode of Manji and Nitish Kumar in Bihar shows why politicians are loath to groom a number 2 and prefer to concentrate all authority and decision making in themselves.
Manji and our very own Chandrababu Naidu are perfect examples of what happens if there is a number 2 man in the Party.
Chandrababu was a trusted lieutenant of NTR. But NTR ended up paying heavily for this mistake when he was dethroned by Naidu. Of course, Naidu never made the same mistake and kept a vice like grip on the TDP.
Nitish gave the top post to Manji as the latter was considered as a very loyal person but Manji developed a preference for the top spot leading to the drama in Bihar.
Even YS Jagan is maintaining a complete grip over the YSRCP ensuring that there is no parallel power structure in the Party.
Jayalalitha has been forced to appoint Pannerselvam, but one never knows!
When Pranab Mukherjee was becoming all too powerful in the Congress, Sonia was worried that he might turn out to be another PV Narasimha Rao and promptly packed him off to Rashtrapati Bhavan.
We even have an international example in the form of Srilanka. Sirisena was a loyal subordinate of Rajapakse who quit the latter’s Party and became President.
Moral of the story? If you are a politician, do not groom or have a number 2 !
