The name Nara Chandrababu Naidu means many things to many people: the Chief Minister and exceptional technocrat who steered Hyderabad into an information technology hub, a Telugu leader who put Andhra Pradesh on the global map, an obsessively hard-working politician and reliable patron for members of his Kamma community, a skilful negotiator who brought World Bank funds to the State, an astute businessman, and, on the flip side, someone who favoured industry over agriculture and subjected it to significant setbacks. To his critics, he is a shrewd opportunist who stops at nothing to gain power. Naidu is all that and much more.
On June 4, stunning his opponents and political pundits alike, the alliance led by him and comprising the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the JanaSena Party (JSP), and the Bharatiya Janata Party won 164 of the 175 Assembly constituencies in Andhra Pradesh; of this the TDP alone won 135 seats. The government is all set for a challenging ride, partly because of the state of affairs in Andhra Pradesh and partly because of the numerous promises the party rolled out in the run-up to the elections. The 74-year-old Naidu took oath on June 12 and became Andhra Pradesh’s longest-serving Chief Minister (including undivided Andhra Pradesh).
“One thing about Naidu is that he is a hard-working Chief Minister. Secondly, if he wants to achieve some target, he puts a lot of pressure on the bureaucracy and the system and gets it done. That way, he is a taskmaster. At one point, he was even projected as a potential Prime Minister candidate,” said Professor G. Haragopal, an activist, social scientist, and former dean of the School of Social Sciences, University of Hyderabad. “But his model of governance is technology-centric and urban-centric.”
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Naidu’s first term as Chief Minister began in 1995 after he launched a successful coup against his father-in-law Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao (popularly NTR), the Tollywood superstar and founder of the TDP. Before joining the TDP, Naidu was a member of the Congress for over a decade, was elected as MLA in 1978, and served as a Minister for a couple of years. During this time, Naidu married NTR’s daughter Bhuvaneshwari. He joined the TDP after the Congress’ defeat in the 1983 Assembly election.
Technocratic model of governance
Naidu’s tenure as Chief Minister coincided with the decade of change. Discerning the forthcoming software boom, he worked on turning a part of Hyderabad into an IT hub. He also brought in several infrastructural projects, including an international airport, pharmaceutical industries, and colleges. Some sectors saw growth, while others declined. It was at this time that Naidu drifted towards a technocratic model of governance.
At the national level, Naidu first opted to side with the United Front (1996-98) before giving outside support to the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in 1998. In 1999, Naidu got re-elected and became the Chief Minister for a second consecutive term (1999-2004).
Since his first term, Naidu has mastered perception management. It remains one of the domains where Naidu surpasses most of his contemporaries. “If one ignores political party press, Eenadu is probably one of the earliest privately owned media houses to discard all pretence of neutrality and throw its might behind a political party [TDP]. Naidu was a pioneer in capturing commercial media and cultivating it through various strategies of state patronage,” said Padmaja Shaw, a media critic and retired professor of journalism at Osmania University.
With Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates at AP AgTech Summit 2017 in Visakhapatnam. | Photo Credit: C.V. SUBRAHMANYAM
By the early 2000s, Naidu was riding the wave of investment and the rise of the IT sector in Hyderabad. His high-tech governance and unwavering commitment to the neoliberal development model earned him laurels, often internationally. Where Naidu gained prominence was among urban people who were often unaware of the ground realities of rural Andhra Pradesh.
“He was the first Chief Minister to go global, working with the World Bank, [Microsoft co-founder] Bill Gates, and [former US President] Bill Clinton, which attracted national and international media attention to Naidu and Hyderabad city,” Shaw told Frontline.
As his second term progressed, the media hype about the “Naidu phenomenon” was perhaps misread as a widespread mandate for his policies. “During that period, Naidu truly thought he was invincible,” a TDP insider said.
Away from the corridors of power in Hyderabad, dissent against TDP rule was growing among small and marginal farmers. The State government’s retreat from the agricultural sector resulted in piling debts, farmer suicides, and a deepening state of crisis. Inadequate measures to deal with droughts worsened the situation in several areas.
That was when Congress leader Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy (popularly remembered as YSR) walked into the hearts of people: during his 1,500 km padayatra across the State, he vowed to serve farmers and other marginalised groups. Other factors too contributed to Naidu’s loss in the next election. YSR was a feudal leader who exuded benevolence and promised to usher in welfare, which sealed the fate of the 2004 election. YSR’s professional qualification as a doctor helped in building a connect with people.
Despite allegations of corruption, YSR won a second term in 2009 and was Chief Minister until his untimely death in a helicopter crash. Although the Congress faltered in maintaining control over the State in YSR’s absence, Naidu stayed out of power until 2014.
Highlights
- N. Chandrababu Naidu is known for transforming Hyderabad into an IT hub and introducing several infrastructural projects. He shifted towards a technocratic model of governance during his tenure as Chief Minister.
- In 2014, he became Chief Minister for a third time, this time in the newly divided State of Andhra Pradesh. This time he faced criticism for his fixation with his dream project for a capital city of Amaravati.
- His fourth term will require more than striking a balance between welfare and development, he will also need to learn the extent of the crisis and the aspirations of people in rural Andhra Pradesh.
Fixation with Amaravati
In 2014, Naidu became Chief Minister for a third time, but this time in the newly divided State of Andhra Pradesh. Despite the provision in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014, which stated that Hyderabad would remain the joint capital for 10 years, Naidu was eager to replicate his Hyderabad model in the new State. Analysts say it was largely because of Telangana Rashtra Samithi supremo K. Chandrashekar Rao’s antagonistic approach towards the neighbouring State that began Naidu’s fixation with Amaravati, the new capital of Andhra Pradesh, for the rest of his term.
Chandrababu Naidu’s Amaravati capital project had faced harsh criticism from not only a section of the populace and civil society but also policymakers and academics. Here, inspecting a replica of his dream project on June 20. | Photo Credit: RAO GN
“Of course, Amaravati’s development remains important. But Hyderabad, unlike Amaravati, has had a long history of industrial development. Even during the Nizam era, there were a lot of industries. But Andhra Pradesh is primarily an agricultural economy,” Haragopal told Frontline. Several critics pointed that out early on, but Naidu took no heed and stopped paying the rest of the State the attention it needed.
Amaravati was to be built on 33,000 acres (13,355 hectares) of fertile farmland. Since the land acquisition phase (which bypassed the 2013 Land Rehabilitation Act), Naidu has faced harsh criticism from not only a section of the populace and civil society but also policymakers and academics. The subsequent choices, including design, drew more criticism as Naidu’s dream of a world-class capital looked increasingly unrealistic.
Naidu and his coterie rubbished the allegations that people from his Kamma community (a dominant caste group) benefited from the selection of the location for the capital city, the land deals, and the real estate opportunities. Naidu and several top TDP leaders have consistently maintained that the party works for everyone regardless of caste or religion. However, several scholars (such as Dalel Benbabaali, currently at the University of Oxford) have documented how political patronage has helped Kammas gain unparalleled socio-economic mobility in the State.
During this term (2014-19), Naidu also toyed with a real time governance system. Analysts would later speculate that fudged analytics (from bureaucrats) about efficient governance was one of the reasons that put him out of touch with the widespread anti-incumbency sentiment.
Initially in this term, Naidu had a decent run with the BJP. However, mounting pressure from the opposition parties (the Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party and others) about the Special Category Status to Andhra Pradesh and pending infrastructure projects made him quit the alliance. But it was too late, with a serious cash crunch having already hit the new State. Following a bitter fallout with the BJP, Naidu allied briefly with the Congress in 2019.
With JanaSena Party chief Pawan Kalyan (right) releasing the joint manifesto at Undavalli on April 30 even as BJP in-charge for the general elections Siddharth Nath Singh looks on. | Photo Credit: RAO GN
Now, it was Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s turn to follow in the footsteps of his father YSR by embarking on a padayatra. He promised to cater to all neglected regions and people. Jagan swept the 2019 Assembly and Lok Sabha elections.
A defeated Naidu and TDP worked to revive themselves from the ground up. Describing this period (2019-24), Nara Lokesh, Naidu’s son, told Frontline in an earlier interview that politics can be “unforgiving and gruelling”, but it is a challenge he enjoyed working on. Most political analysts attribute one trait to the TDP’s revival each time the party has faltered: Naidu’s tact and hard work. Even many of his detractors, despite criticising his decisions, tend to agree that Naidu works hard, even when he is in the opposition. For instance, in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic gripped the world, Naidu launched several initiatives such as video conference consultations with a US-based doctor and arrangements to bring back people of Andhra Pradesh stuck in other States.
During this period, for the first time, the TDP also hired a political consultancy group. According to Shanthanu Singh, the director of ShowTime Consulting, Naidu “gave us the space to try different things, freedom in terms of making decisions, and freedom to innovate and improvise”. Naidu’s arrest in September 2023 on allegations of corruption could have slowed down the party’s revival, but party leaders stepped up after the initial shock. Pawan Kalyan stepped in with unconditional support; the TDP-JSP alliance eventually propelled them towards victory.
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Naidu’s 45-year political career is dotted with several realpolitik decisions, which are at times termed as about turns. But he is unfazed by such criticism. When the Gujarat riots shook the nation in 2002, Naidu demanded the resignation of Narendra Modi, the then Chief Minister of Gujarat. Naidu was then part of the Vajpayee-led National Democratic Alliance government and one of the first leaders to speak out. However, he swiftly abandoned the attempt to push the BJP to act stringently against Modi as he saw no hope of a favourable outcome.
His fallout with the BJP in 2018 was perhaps the most open and bitter one. Naidu challenged Modi’s governance, his politics, and his anti-minority rhetoric. Both sides vowed to never come together again. Today, after returning to power, Naidu and other TDP leaders maintain that there were only a few differences with the BJP.
Electoral compulsions
Over the years, electoral compulsions have pushed Naidu to be more accepting of welfare. Moving away from his past mistakes, he has also vowed to distance himself from a bureaucratic governance model. Party members hope that the feedback mechanisms installed in the past five years will be retained, at least to some extent.
Interacting with cotton farmers at Chillakallu village in Krishna district in Vijayawada on January 22, 2013, as part of his Vastunna Meekosam Padayatra. | Photo Credit: Ch. Vijaya Bhaskar
Led by Naidu, the alliance now faces an uphill task to deliver on the many election guarantees. The fiscal situation in Andhra Pradesh will test Naidu’s enterprise in improving the State’s revenues without levying additional taxes, and his competence in getting adequate funds from the Centre, which he failed to do in the previous term.
Being a techno-managerial politician has inherent limitations, Naidu’s critics believe, as it does not help the agrarian sector. Thus, Naidu’s fourth term will require more than striking a balance between welfare and development. He will have to learn the extent of the crisis and the aspirations of people in rural Andhra Pradesh.
Haragopal points out that when presented with an opportunity (after becoming a key player in the NDA), Nitish Kumar of the Janata Dal (United), one of the allies supporting the Modi government at the Centre along with the TDP, chose the panchayati raj, animal husbandry, fisheries, and dairying portfolios, whereas Naidu opted for civil aviation (cabinet minister). Other ministers from Bihar hold the MSME, food processing, and textile cabinet ministries. There is some disappointment in the State that TDP managed to get only one cabinet ministry. The only other representation that TDP got was that of a Minister of State (Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani, for rural development and communications). And, as of now, Naidu’s attention still appears to be on urban-centric development, as Haragopal told Frontline. Although too early to speculate, it does signify priorities. Party insiders, however, say Naidu is a changed man and will strike a balance this time around.
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