Politics are strange games. Parties grow by the charisma of the leader and the leader becomes all powerful. Once he becomes all powerful, he becomes despotic. Then he begins to exercise his authority and this breeds dissidence. The dissidence leads to the defeat. Leaders like NTR and Modi have dealt with this differently. Now, YS Jagan too is in the same position. Which way will he go – the NTR way or the Modi way?

When NTR became the chief minister in 2013 and came out in flying colours in the Nadendla episode, he became all powerful. By 1989, he dropped enough seniors, removed enough leaders and shuffled enough ministers. As a result, the seniors became dissidents. As a result, NTR undertook a massive reshuffle of his cabinet to assert his authority. More than 50 per cent of the ministers were dropped. This led to dissidence against NTR. NTR could not handle the dissidence and he lost badly in 1989. In fact, NTR lost from one of the three seats – Kalwakurthy – he contested.

But, there is another model. Recently PM Narendra Modi reshuffled his cabinet. Half of his ministers were removed. Some were downgraded and some were sent home. Among them are big names like Ravishankar Prasad and Prakash Jawadekar. Modi’s grip on the party is so powerful that there was not a murmur. There was no dissidence whatsoever. Those removed kept silent and took whatever alternative job that the party offered them.

Now, Jagan too wants to rejig his council of ministers. He is planning to drop at least a half of the ministers and replace them with other leaders from the same social groups. But the leaders he might drop are locally powerful. Some are incharges of the districts they come from. What will happen if he drops them? Will there be dissidence like in case of NTR or obedience like in case of Modi? Can Jagan manage the dissidence in the party? Remember, even NTR had a road-roller majority when he removed a big number of his ministers during 1985-89 period.