Ramakrishna Ranga Rao of Bobbili

The Mayoralty of Madras came into existence when the Corporation of Madras was established in 1688. The first mayor was Nathaniel Higginson, who resigned after a period of six months to take over as Governor of Madras. The post of mayor was abolished in 1801.[7]

The post of mayor was revived by the Raja of Bobbili government on 17 January 1933, by the City Municipal Act. The first mayor after its revival was the prominent Justice Party Leader, K. Sriramulu Naidu who was followed by Raja Sir Annamalai Chettiar.[7]

In August 1933, despite the vehement opposition of zamindars in the Madras Presidency, the Raja of Bobbili passed an amendment to the Estates Land Act of 1908 which safeguarded the rights of the cultivators and freed them from the bondage of middlemen or inamdars.[2] However, despite this legislation and a few others benefitting the cultivator, his regime was regarded as one which largely supported the interests of zamindars.

The term of the legislature expired on 5 November 1933. However, the elections to the Madras Legislative Council were delayed by a year. Meanwhile, the Indian National Congress had decided to participate in the elections at a meeting in Patna in May 1934 and hence, when the elections took place in November 1934, the Justice Party lost miserably.[8] However, the Raja of Bobbili adopted contingency measures by immediately convening a meeting and conducting negotiations between the different factions of the party. The Swarajya Party which won a majority in the Assembly once again refused to form the government in accordance with its policy of wrecking the dyarchy. So, the Raja of Bobbili was elected Chief Minister for a second term though he did not command the majority of the house.

Justice Party stalwarts R. K. Shanmukham Chetty and Arcot Ramasamy Mudaliar had lost their seats as the chief whip of the party, Rajah Muthiah Chettiar withdrew his support for their candidature. Ramakrishna Ranga Rao responded by dismissing Rajah Muthiah Chettiar as the leader of the party in the Assembly. Muthiah moved a no-confidence motion against the ministry but the motion was defeated. However, the differences between the Raja of Bobbili and Muthiah Chettiar was soon patched up and the Raja made the latter a minister in the cabinet.[9]

Kumaraswami Reddiar resigned his ministry post due to ill-health in 1936 and he was replaced with Rajah Muthiah Chettiar in a move to wipe out differences in the party.[8] With the permission of the Governor, the Raja also created a new Ministry of Home in order to accommodate disgruntled factions in the party.[10] Mohammad Usman served as the first Minister of Home followed by Sir A. T. Paneerselvam.

On 1 April 1936, the Ganjam district was separated from Madras Presidency and constituted in the newly created province of Orissa.

The Great Depression struck the province at the fag end of P. Subbarayan's tenure and lasted the whole span of the Munuswamy Naidu and Bobbili governments. The policy of the Raja of Bobbili during the Depression was alleged to be one of the indifference to plight of the peasants and the poor. The government expressed its complete solidarity with the Governor and his executive council. As a result, while the Government endorsed the measures taken by the governor it did not criticize those that were detrimental to the common man. The ministry is alleged to have done little for the financial relief of the common man apart from making recommendations or expressing sympathy and grief. Moreover, the affluent lifestyle led by the ministers at the height of the Great Depression were sharply criticized. Madras ministers drew a salary of Rs.433 per month as opposed to Rs.225 per month that ministers in the Central Provinces received as salary.[11] This invoked the ire of the Madras press. The newspaper India wrote:

Is not Rs.225 enough for Madras ministers, who were only second-rate vakils in the mufassal (rural areas)? When the poor are suffering for want of money, they are drawing fat salaries? What an injustice?[11]

In 1933, the Indian National Congress, represented by the Swarajya Party, brought forth a resolution demanding a decrease of 12.5% in land revenue in non-Zamindari areas. The Justice Party voted against the resolution. Angered by the stand of the Justice Party, the Congress declared that 26 November 1933 be observed as Land Revenue Reduction Day. Protests were organized all over the province. At a meeting organized on the Madras beach, Congress leader Sathyamurthy demanded that the land tax be reduced by 33.3 percent. These demands were backed by the peasants in the province.[12] However, these demands went unheeded. On the eve of the 1937 elections, the South Indian Federation of Peasants passed a resolution

This federation resolves that in the coming Assembly elections the proper and class-wise course for peasants to follow is to vote for the Congress candidates in general and to utilize all their organizational and other resources to strengthen those Congress candidates who give their unequivocal assurance of support for implementing of the peasant's charter of minimum demands through their work both within and without the Legislatures.[12]

Individual Congressmen launched agitations for the abolition of zamindaris. The Raja of Bobbili was against the movement as being a zamindar himself, he had pro-zamindar sympathies. He, therefore, considered it to be a law and order issue and order a crackdown leading to police firing in some areas.[13]

Lord Erskine, the Governor of Madras wrote to the Secretary of State for India, Lord Zetland in February 1937 that the peasants in South India were fed up with the Justice Party.[14]

Bobbili's rule was autocratic and he was highly inaccessible to party members.[15] The success of every previous government in the Presidency had been due to the support of the district boards. However, the Raja of Bobbili, instead of appeasing the district-level politicians tried to destroy their power and influence.[16]

The Suthanthira Sangu, in its issue dated 26 February 1935:

The Local Boards Act has been recently amended, taluk boards have been abolished, a district board has been bifurcated and attempts have been made to bifurcate other boards, which are hostile to him... He is superseding municipalities, which do not bow to his authority, removing chairmen not liked by him and trying to forfeit the liberty of these bodies by the appointment of Commissioners.[14]

The Madras Mail noted in its editorial dated 1 June 1935:

if the Justice Party is really determined upon reorganisation, it should be one of its first proclamations that, so far as it is concerned the spoils system must go[14]

This, along with Bobbili's autocratic rule and factionalism within the party, had disastrous effects for the fortunes of the Justice party.[15]