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Tuesday, December 02, 2025 | 08:28 PM ISTहिंदी में पढें
Governance, not caste: The investment strategy that keeps CMs in power
Glib talk of caste explains only part of why some chief ministers stay in power for decades
 "chief ministers, political leaders, politics")
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Long tenures of chief ministers hinge on effective first-term governance, not just caste politics, with leaders like Nitish Kumar, Jyoti Basu, and Chandrababu Naidu as examples | Illustration: Binay Sinha
Why do some chief ministers come to power ruling for decades, while others go home at the end of their term, sometimes never to be heard of again? In other words, what constitutes the political capital of a chief minister? And what gives them a place in history books?
Caste arbitrage to secure the top state job is passe, as explanations go. Ramakrishna Hegde got the job as chief minister of Karnataka because he was an unthreatening Brahmin in a landscape dominated by the clash of powerful and ambitious Vokkaligas and Lingayats. Jayalalithaa got it despite being a Brahmin in
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