Nikita Bandranaik

Nikita Bandranaik was the first President of Earth (also referred to as the World President or simply the President) elected after the formation of the World Government. He was a portly middle-aged man with a thin black moustache and sleeked-back hair.

Biography
Bandranaik was appointed World President in 2045 by the first international election ever held. (PROSE: This is 2065)

In February 2047, he welcomed Great Britain to the World Government after the country was allowed to join when Twenty One of the Universal Secret Service had helped to end the rule of the Director two months prior. (COMIC: Down With The Director)

Twenty One later discovered a plot by Bereznik agents to kill both the World President and the Astran Kaplan upon the completion of the Andromeda Project on Astra. Bandranaik and the Kaplan eventually visited the site and were given a guided tour by Kapt Klogan but Twenty One was able to both uncover and arrest the Bereznik spy Debbie Latimer to ensure the event proceeded as planned. (COMIC: Andromeda Or Die)

After Twenty One resigned from the USS to seek revenge for the murder of Tina Palamac, escaping Tatiana Bianca in Britain to head for Bereznik, S contacted the World President to help in his capture. He told the President that it would be embarrasing for the World Government if Twenty One got through and Bandranaik agreed, assuring him that the World Navy and the WASPs would be ordered to destroy any submarine heading for Bereznik. (COMIC: The Bitter Cold Dish)

While on a call to Space City to discuss the protection detail for the Neptune delegation for an impending meeting of the World Senate, Bandranaik's image was stored in the memory banks of a damaged deadly fly on security patrol, resulting in it attempting to kill him. Later, he asked why Twenty One had declared a State of Emergency, wishing to be kept informed of the progress of the situation. (COMIC: Deadly Fly)

In November 2047, when SOFRAM stole a planatomic missile and threatened to destroy London with it, Bandranaik was forced to comply to their demands by disbanding the USS and handing Twenty One over to them. Although USS HQ was set alight, neither of these things came to pass. The President restricted Twenty One to office work while he protected his prisoner, the head of SOFRAM, as every agent would be gunning to kill him to protect the organisation's secrets. He gave Twenty One and Jack Reed a grilling after their journey from Canada resulted in the death of the World Government's "most important prisoner" for reasons largely outside their control and said that the fiasco would go down as a black mark on their confidential files. Jack felt the telling-off was unjustified but Twenty One explained to him that, as a USS agent, failure was never an option. (COMIC: An Eye For An Eye)

Although rumours circulated that he would not seek re-election, Bandranaik was restored to office with overwhelming majorities in the November elections of both 2052 and 2059. (PROSE: Solar Streak A.O.K.)

The President's Press Secretary by 1 May 2065 was Norrie Kama, who reported in the press about a meeting of the World War Council following the border skirmish between the Tenth Space Fleet and the Astran space fleet. Although the Council had decreed general mobilisation of male adults, (PROSE: Battle in Space) the World President hoped to bring a swift end to the Space War with the help of the Astran ambassador to Earth (COMIC: Ceasefire — But War Tension Mounts...) by sending a message directly to the leader of the Astra Space Empire through a special mission by Colonel Zodiac. (COMIC: President Offers Peace...)

After the assassination of the Kaplan during his subsequent state visit to Unity City, Zodiac and Commander Zero later came back to the President's office to report on the escape and subsequent death of Count Lugosti, the assassin. (COMIC: Army In House To House Search)

In August 2065, Bandranaik ordered a full scale alert in an effort to locate the bathyscaphe B1, which had gone missing with Marshal Ketov aboard. (PROSE: New York Blaze)

In December 2065, the President declared Holland as a flood disaster area after uncontrollable weather resulted in the "mysterious and dramatic" rise in temperature of the polar ice caps, causing major flooding in the northern hemisphere. (PROSE: World Weather Chaos!) During this crisis, the Oric leader addressed a plea for help to the World President. It claimed that Oric was under threat from the Daleks and that they would move to attack the Solar Empire after completing an invasion of the planet. The World Security Council met in Washington to discuss the matter but it was ultimately decided that no help would be sent. (PROSE: Help Plea from Planet) After days of rioting and the rising of some mob armies, martial law was declared in the major cities of the northern hemisphere. As the weather crisis continued, Bandranaik called upon all members of the Senate to inform their governments that all possible action was being taken to stop the widespread flooding, further elaborating that the W.A.S.P. vessel Stingray was in the North Pole with orders to destroy any space aliens responsible for the melting ice caps. (PROSE: World Emergency)

In early 2066, rumours circulated once again that he would not seek re-election in the November election. Ill health and increased pressure contributed to their spread with Bandranaik refusing to comment on the matter in a World Government press conference. (PROSE: Solar Streak A.O.K.)

In Unity City, Bandranaik opened an interplanetary phone system which linked the nine planets of the Solar System. It allowed people to get direct contact by phone to any city or town throughout the Universe with all nine planets contributing in some way towards the cost of the link up. (PROSE: Scoop of the Year)

The President ordered a top security conference which included in attendance Commander Zero and Professor Matic when an unidentified aggressor landed at Cape Apollo and fiercely fought back against military units. Bandranaik agreed with Zero that Matic's plan to concentrate all the firepower on the first creature in the hope of finding a way to destroy the others was too dangerous as it meant letting the others run riot in the meantime. He instead ordered that Space City Island be evacuated and cobalt bombs dropped there, cutting the videoscreen dead before any arguments against the decision could be heard. (COMIC: The Syntex Mystery) This meeting was reported upon on 7 May. (PROSE: Destroy Space City) Soon after this, Bandranaik appealed for calm, claiming that everything possible was being done to contain the menace and that there was no cause for alarm. (COMIC: Impasse) When news reached the President that the armed units at Cape Apollo were able to kill the creature just before Space City's destruction, he gave Matic six hours to follow up on his theory before he would be forced to intervene with the bombers once again. (COMIC: The Syntex Mystery)

After this incident, the President's Press Secretary Norrie Kama announced in Unity City that Bandranaik would be making a state visit to Mars at the end of the week. He highlighted the Universal State Fair in Kahra as a particular place of interest and said that the visit was scheduled to last five days. (PROSE: Border Flare Up) The President was met and formally greeted on arrival by Yahun Stat, the Senator for Mars. They boarded a hovercar and journeyed to World House where Bandranaik was to enjoy a dinner hosted in his honour. (PROSE: Drilling Town Success)

President Bandranaik called for a complete report on the Black Ship attacks soon after news of the Black Ship's latest activities reached him. This was said by some news outlets to underline the increasing concern in Unity City. (COMIC: The Terrorkon Harvest) Zero notified the President of his refusal of Damacles' trade of the life of Venus for Fireball XL5, a decision which he agreed was "tough" but the "right" one. However, he changed his mind when his printing telex informed him that Earth's top scientists had been abducted during a Black Ship attack on Space Station Aeries, forcefully telling Zero to hand over XL5 and "find a way of busting their organisation". (COMIC: The Black Ship)

While holidaying in Switzerland, Bandranaik was injured in a skiing accident in the mountains near Zurich when he was buried by an avalanche. He was taken to Zurich General Hospital to be treated with Vice President Shaw Jansen undertaking all World Government duties while he was indisposed, including a state visit to Astra, (PROSE: GA34R Hunt) where he would have enjoyed a dinner in his honour at the Kaplan's residence. (PROSE: Roman Citadel Mystery Solved)

During the heat crisis of 2066, Bandranaik was back in charge. TV 21 asked the President to break the silence if the World Government knew the cause of the disasters across the world. (PROSE: Welsh Volcano Erupts) He was interrupted by Clifford while in a meeting with space experts and scientists. This was because Jeff Tracy of International Rescue had linked up with the President's private videophone. He agreed to speak with Tracy on the basis that he might learn something of the private organisation and eventually gave permission for Thunderbird 3 to investigate the Sun, albeit reluctantly, by acknowledging some familiarity with their exploits. He did, however, demand to be kept informed of the situation. Jeff stuck to his promise and contacted the President after viewing Brains' film, stating there was no doubt that the Sun would produce a new satellite putting the entire Solar System in danger. Summarising that it meant the end of the world, Bandranaik approved his request for a planetomic missile to save Earth by destroying the waste matter before it could escape the Sun's gravity. (COMIC: Solar Danger)

True to the previous rumours, Bandranaik did not stand for re-election as World President in November 2066 due to ill health (PROSE: Information Service) although he remained in office until at least January 2067. After a number of research stations were destroyed, he presided over a meeting of the World Senate during which he was hounded to launch retataliation missiles at Bereznik. However, he was contacted by President Vassov and informed that similar misfortunes had also struck his country. Seeing nothing more he could do in the face of an unknown aggressor, Bandranaik put their military forces on high alert and disbanded the session. (COMIC: Fireball XL5) Eventually, T.J. Younger was "overwhemingly" chosen to succeed him. (PROSE: Information Service)

By 2069, Bandranaik had died. On 13 January that year, a statue of him was erected in a small Bereznik town, forcing officials to deny rumours that they were losing influence. (PROSE: January to June)

Behind the scenes

 * Nikita Bandranaik happens to share the names of two real world leaders of the 1960s: Nikita Khrushchev of the Soviet Union and of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).