Appaji Reddem | The Hindu | June 09, 2024
For Nara Chandrababu Naidu, the 74-year-old Telugu Desam Party (TDP) supremo, the 2024 elections brought a double victory. His party captured power in Andhra Pradesh by winning 135 seats in the 175-member Assembly and emerged as the second largest party in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) by securing 16 Lok Sabha seats (out of the 25 in the State).
With the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) falling short of the halfway mark in Parliament by 32 seats, Mr. Naidu has emerged as a kingmaker. The BJP is also banking on the Janata Dal (United), led by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, which won 12 Lok Sabha seats, and other smaller NDA partners, to form the next government at the Centre.
Post-elections, there were rumours that the Congress and the INDIA alliance had offered the special category status to Andhra Pradesh and key portfolios to the TDP in return for the party’s support, but Mr. Naidu, who flew to Delhi to join an NDA meeting after the results were announced, made it clear that he would stay with the BJP-led alliance.
Prime Minister Modi thanked Mr. Naidu for extending the TDP’s support for the NDA. And Mr. Naidu said Mr. Modi is the right leader for India at the right time, adding that balancing regional aspirations with national interests is a must for India, while ensuring holistic development for all sections of society.
For the record, Mr. Naidu played a key role in national politics in 1996 and 2014 when he was the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. He extended his support from outside to the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. In 2014, when Mr. Modi came to power at the Centre, he was part of the NDA, but the alliance fell apart in 2018 as the demand for the special category status (SCS) for the bifurcated Andhra Pradesh was not met. The TDP high command then asked its Ministers in the Union Cabinet — Ashok Gajapathi Raju and Sujana Chowdary — to quit.
Cut to 2024: Mr. Naidu has extended “unconditional” support to the NDA.
The TDP’s emergence as a key ally of the BJP in a coalition government is a timely opportunity for Mr. Naidu. He has already made it clear that the TDP will be a part of the Union Cabinet and he may bargain for plum portfolios.
His immediate goal is to finish the incomplete task of rebuilding the bifurcated A.P. and, especially, Amaravati as the capital city — his brain child.
He fought the 2024 polls in an alliance with the BJP and Pawan Kalyan’s Jana Sena Party (JSP). Explaining the logic behind the alliance, he stated that ‘without the Centre’s support, it is not possible to rebuild the bifurcated A.P.”
Mr. Naidu may also revive his demand for the SCS for the State, which was promised by the former Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, in the Rajya Sabha, in 2014 when A.P. was bifurcated to carve out Telangana. While the then ruling Congress offered the SCS to AP for five years, the BJP had endorsed the same to be extended for 10 years. This apart, Mr. Naidu is expected to seek the Centre’s support for completing the long-pending Polavaram Multipurpose Irrigation Project, say TDP leaders.
Grandiose plan
As the first CM of bifurcated A.P. in 2014, Mr. Naidu came up with a grandiose plan to build Amaravati with the help of a Singapore consortium, which submitted a master plan. He could gather over 34,000 acres from thousands of farmers in 29 villages through a land pooling plan for Amaravati.
But he could not complete the project as he was voted out in 2019 and Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s YSR Congress party came to power.
The YSR Congress government came up with a three-capital plan: Amaravati as legislative capital; Visakhapatnam as executive capital and Kurnool as judiciary capital, to ensure the decentralised development of the State. But the plan did not take off either within the five-year term of Mr. Jagan’s government.
Mr. Naidu started his political career right from his student years in Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati, where he did MA in Economics. Hailing from Naravari Palli in Chittoor district, he joined the Congress party. He became an MLA at the age of 28 and a Minister at the age of 30. Mr. Naidu served as the Minister for Cinematography, Technical Education, Irrigation and Archives during T. Anjaiah’s government between 1980 and 1983.
Later he married Bhuvaneswari, daughter of the late N.T. Rama Rao, the founder of the TDP and a doyen of Telugu cinema. Later Mr. Naidu switched to the TDP and became Chief Minister in 1995 in united A.P. after a revolt against his father-in-law and Chief Minister NTR. During his 10-year tenure, Mr. Naidu created a space for Hyderabad in the global map as a favourite IT destination.
During this time, Mr. Naidu was termed the CEO of A.P. as he promoted high-tech and transparent governance. He convinced Bill Gates to set up the Microsoft India Development Centre in Hyderabad, which at that time was the biggest Microsoft facility outside the U.S. Later, several global corporations, mostly IT firms made a beeline to set up shop in Hyderabad.
However, in the 2004 polls, Mr. Naidu lost power to the Congress party. There were criticisms that his high-tech governance overlooked the economic conditions in the rural areas.
Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy of the Congress won two consecutive terms and remained the CM till he died in a helicopter accident in 2009. Mr. Naidu was back as CM post-bifurcation of the State in 2014. During this term, he promised to build Amaravati like he once transformed Hyderabad. Now that he is back in power, his pet project is in the limelight again.
Jail term
After his 2019 defeat, Mr. Naidu faced multiple cases and was arrested in September 2023 in a multicrore scam related to the Skill Development Corporation. He spent 53 days in jail. It was a low point in his political career. But it was at this time, that actor-turned-politician and Jana Sena Party leader Pawan Kalyan announced his support for the TDP after meeting Mr. Naidu in Rajahmundry jail. Mr. Kalyan also said he would work towards bringing the JSP, the TDP and the BJP together to form an alliance. The trio fought the 2024 election together, and the rest is history.
“It’s a wonderful result and such huge majorities became possible only due to the combined efforts of the TDP, the Jana Sena and the BJP,” said TDP State president K. Atchannaidu.
“The victory has enhanced our responsibility multifold. The State is sabotaged, systems failed and the YSRCP has thrown the State into a financial crisis. But still, I’m very confident that the State is under the able and experienced leadership of Nara Chandrababu Naidu and a stalwart like Narendra Modiji is the PM; we will bring the State back on the right track. And we will live up to the responsibility given to us by people,” he said. “I bow to the five crore Telugu people in the State who gave us such a great victory.”
