To name or not to name

Should a chief minister be named ahead of the election? Or should the election be strictly on the basis of voting by elected legislators of the party?

It was the Congress that used to face this dilemma. In the 1970s and 1980s, an important reason for the rise of the NT Rama Rao-led Telugu Desam Party was that the Congress dispensation in New Delhi — led at the time by Indira Gandhi —shuffled and changed chief ministers at will with absolutely no regard for the legislators and the person they considered their leader. NTR made this a cause célèbre. Under the Congress between 1978 and 1983, Indira Gandhi appointed and sacked five individuals as Chief Minister — J Vengala Rao, M Chenna Reddy, T Anjaiah, Bhavanam Venkatram