Newsmaker: V Narayanasamy

Congress' only new CM a humble climber

In 2011, V Narayanasamy became one of the most powerful men in India - if power were to be measured as proximity to leadership. He was appointed minister of state in the Prime Minister's Office, replacing Prithviraj Chavan, sent to Maharashtra as chief minister. This was in addition to his charge as minister for parliamentary affairs and MoS, department of personnel and training.

Narayanasamy did not let his exalted status go to his head. "I will try to live up to the expectations of the PM and and the UPA (ruling coalition) chairperson (Sonia Gandhi). I will follow whatever direction is given to me by the leadership. I am not for any publicity, I will keep a low profile," he intoned to reporters.

He followed this with carrying Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi's slippers and giving him his own when Gandhi's got wet during a campaign visit to Puducherry in the run-up to the elections in 2016.

Narayanasamy has now been rewarded with the chief ministership of Puducherry, the Union Territory he comes from, though he did not contest the Assembly elections. The Congress won 15 seats in the 30-member Assembly. It was Narayanasamy who saved the party its blushes, thrown out as it was from both Assam and Kerala. Narayanasamy was brought to Delhi from Puducherry by Rajiv Gandhi, who made him a Rajya Sabha member when he was only 31. He was part of Rajiv's 'shouting brigade' in Parliament, along with S S Ahluwalia, Ratnakar Pandey and Suresh Pachauri. He went on to become a parliamentary party leader in the Narasimha Rao era. His first brush with the headlines was when, on Rao's instructions, he delayed the Congress' letter of support to the United Front government in 1996. As a result, Atal Behari Vajpayee became prime minister. Rao hoped to be called by the President to form the government after Vajpayee failed. Narayanasamy was a small part of that bigger plot.

Narayanasamy's greatest talent lies in making unobtrusive moves. Everybody likes him. He began life by reporting to the likes of Ghulam Nabi Azad and Oscar Fernandes. He is now their equal. He had an especially good equation with Ahmad Patel, a relationship he nurtured. And, when Rahul Gandhi was nothing more than an MP, Narayanasamy was a regular visitor to the former's house at 12, Tughlak Crescent.

When the time came to leverage all these friendships to secure the most important job in Puducherry, Narayanasamy gave it everything he had. He decimated his opponents, Namassivayam and Vaithialingam, lobbied hard with Delhi and has since become CM, anointed by Sheila Dikshit, who was sent as observer at the legislature party election. There has been violence in the tiny UT - which also has a new Governor in Kiran Bedi - in protest against his elevation and the challenge is by no means past. Narayanasamy still has to get one of the Congress MLAs to step down, so that he can contest and win an election as MLA. He has six months to do this. It seems certain he will pull it off.