When Odisha’s Berhampur Re-elected Narasimha Rao To Lok Sabha!

Bhubaneswar: The year was 1996. After completing his first term as Prime Minister, PV Narasimha Rao was seeking re-election to the Lok Sabha in the general elections.

In this, Rao chose two constituencies — Nandyal, his home constituency, and Berhampur in Odisha.

The late PM’s choice of contesting from the Berhampur seat, then a Congress stronghold, was not far to see. A year earlier in 1995, Congress had come back to power in Odisha and the then Chief Minister, JB Patnaik, was keen to consolidate his position in the party by getting the PM to contest from the state.

Rao was pitted against the queen of the erstwhile princely state of Khallikot, V Sugnana Kumari Deo, from Janata Dal. When the poll result came, the former PM won with a margin of more than 1.68 lakh votes.

He had also won from Nandyal, but he chose to resign from that seat and retain Berhampur, which earned the honour as a VVIP constituency. It’s another matter that Rao had to sit in the Opposition as Congress couldn’t form the government at the Centre in 1996.

Rao was born on June 28, 1921 in Telangana (then Nizam’s Hyderabad state) and expired on December 23, 2004 in New Delhi.

To celebrate his birth centenary on Sunday, the Telangana government has made elaborate preparations. The centenary celebrations will continue till June 28, 2021, according to a report in Times Now.

“Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has declared that to recall and remember the greatest services rendered by former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao as a multi-faced personality in several fields, it was decided to organise his centenary celebrations on behalf of the state for one year,” read a statement from the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO).

“He announced that on June 28, the birthday of PV Narasimha Rao, the main programme would be organised at PV Gnana Bhoomi in Hyderabad. Around the same time, celebrations will be held at 50 locations worldwide. Rs 10 crore will be sanctioned immediately,” it added.