A Chief Minister dismissed while in hospital — and reinstated a fortnight later

In August 1984, N. T. Rama Rao — the film star who'd founded the Telugu Desam Party only two years earlier and swept to power as Andhra Pradesh's Chief Minister in 1983 — travelled to the United States for coronary bypass surgery. While he was still recovering, Governor Thakur Ram Lal dismissed him from office on 16 August 1984 and swore in N. Bhaskara Rao, NTR's own finance minister, as the new Chief Minister, citing defections within the TDP's legislature party.

The move was widely read as Congress-backed — opposition parties across the political spectrum, from the Left to the Bharatiya Janata Party, condemned it jointly as, in their words, “an unprecedented, unconstitutional and undemocratic act in the history of the Indian Republic.”

NTR flew back to India still recovering and, rather than negotiate in Hyderabad, took his case directly to voters — campaigning state-wide, at points appearing before crowds in his hospital clothes to underline how he'd been removed. He produced signed affidavits from a majority of TDP's MLAs affirming their support. Under mounting pressure, President Zail Singh dismissed Governor Ram Lal on 29 August 1984, and NTR was reinstated as Chief Minister; a floor test the following month confirmed he held the Assembly's confidence.