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Journalism of Courage
In 1985, the Ramakrishna Hegde wave swept Karnataka. There were five to six ticket aspirants that year from the constituency of Gauribidanur, which is now in Chikkaballapura district, but 20 days before the elections, Hegde, who went on to be the CM, and the Janata Dal sprang a surprise by fielding actor “Mukhyamantri” Chandru, then 32 years old, as its candidate. Chandru ended up winning the election by 6,600 votes and that marked his “accidental” entry into politics. Four years later, Chandru was fielded in the Lok Sabha elections but he suffered a massive defeat and that was the last time he contested any election, Assembly or Lok Sabha.
But that was not the end of the political career of the prolific actor, who went on to join the BJP and serve as the MLC twice and even became the chairperson of the Kannada Development Authority. Now, more than 500 movies later, the 69-year-old, whose real name is Honnasandra Narasimhaiah Chandrashekar, has been appointed the state chief of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Karnataka. “We will start our journey from the gram panchayat elections. We don’t have finances like the BJP or the Congress to campaign but we will do it in our style. We will make a difference,” the actor said after taking over his new position on Thursday.
Asked how he came to be in charge of the state unit, Chandru said it was accidental and he did not anticipate the elevation. “I was the happy head of the public relations and campaign committee of the party. But Prithvi Reddy (former state president of AAP) was appointed as national joint secretary, he gave my name and also convinced me. It was again accidental.” The veteran actor, who has his task cut out as Karnataka continues to be a challenging territory for the AAP, said he would not contest even for the AAP and instead would focus on building the organisation.
Move to BJP
As the Janata Dal splintered amid a feud between Hegde and H D Deve Gowda, and following his loss in 1989, Chandru returned to acting. But his hiatus from politics did not remain last long as he joined the BJP two years later after receiving an offer from the late Ananth Kumar to join the party and he was elected to the Legislative Council in 1998 and 2004.
After the BJP came to power in 2008, Chandru became the head of the Kannada Development Authority. It was during his tenure that Kannada was given the status of a classical language. Chandru was hailed and criticised after some of his recommendations such as the compulsory display of vehicle registration plates in Kannada, making it mandatory for immigrants to clear the Class 7 language test, and making Kannada the compulsory subject for students in Classes 1 to 7.
With one year left in his tenure, the Congress came to power in the state. “Then Chief Minister Siddaramaiah wanted me to continue but I did not feel comfortable. So, I resigned from the post as well as the BJP as corruption and infighting were concerns. Then Siddaramaiah offered me to join the party which I did in 2014 but again the corruption and lack of people-centric governance made me quit.”
The unique name
During his theatre days, Chandrashekar was part of a group called Kalagangothri. Once they were supposed to perform a play titled “Mukyamantri (Chief Minister)”, adapted from a book by Ranjit Kapoor. While actor Lohithaswa was supposed to play the titular role, he fell ill and the responsibility fell on Chandrashekar. His performance garnered him the “Mukhyamantri” nickname and it stuck.
In 1999, when legislators in the Council were participating in a session, House member Nanaiah said during a debate that there could not be two Chief Ministers, referring to Chandru’s nickname. Then CM J H Patel responded calmly, saying, “Chandru got the title from the people and he will remain the chief minister”. Patel is also said to have got a gazette notification issued to get Chandru’s name registered as “Mukyamantri Chandru”.
