HYDERABAD, Dec 10; Six years ago, when P V Narasimha Rao took over the reins of the country in the most unexpected circumstances, several MPs from his home state of Andhra Pradesh offered to vacate their seat to facilitate his election to the Lok Sabha.

The wheel has turned full circle since then and there is hardly any Congressman in the state who is thinking of the man who ruled the country and the party for five years as the nation goes into another election.Virtually relegated to the background and bogged down in court cases, Narasimha Rao, according to senior party leaders, may not even contest the Lok Sabha polls this time round.

The former prime minister was elected from two constituencies -- Nandyal in Andhra Pradesh and Berhampur in Orissa -- in the 1996 polls to the Lok Sabha. He subsequently vacated Nandyal and retained Berhampur.

When he contested from Nandyal in 1991, Rao won with a record majority of more than five lakh votes in a one-sided affair as the Telugu Desam Party decided not to put up a candidate as he was the first ``Telugu bidda'' to have become prime minister.

In fact, there is no ideal seat for Rao in Andhra Pradesh even if he wishes to contest the mid-term elections early next year. The political situation in Nandyal is no longer favourable to the Congress even as the constituents are bitter over Rao vacating the seat though they had elected him for a second time.

His previous constituency -- Hanamkonda in Warangal district -- is also not open to the former prime minister. The sitting MP Kamaluddin Ahmed will, in all likelihood, be renominated. Ahmed, once a cabinet colleague of Rao, no longer has any love for Rao. Orissa Chief Minister J B Patnaik is understood to have already indicated to the party's central leadership that it would be difficult for Rao to get re-elected from Berhampur. A confidant of Rao when he was the prime minister, Patnaik is now Sitaram Kesri's man. Of course, a family member of Rao would, in all likelihood, figure in the list of the Congress candidates for the next elections as his son, Rajeshwara Rao, sitting MP from Secunderaba.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.