Chandrababu Naidu

Nara Chandrababu Naidu ( born 20 April 1950) is an Indian politician and current leader of opposition of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly. He was also the leader of the opposition of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly from 2004 to 2014. He is also the former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh serving from 2014 to 2019.

He is the National President of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP). He also served as the convenor of National Democratic Alliance (NDA). He suffered a major political setback in the 2019 Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly Elections by winning only 23 seats out of the 175 assembly segments. This was a never before seen defeat in the history of Telugu Desam Party (TDP). His son, Nara Lokesh too lost in the elections from Mangalagiri Assembly Constituency.

Early life and education

Naidu was born on 20 April 1950 at Naravaripalle, Tirupati district in present-day Andhra Pradesh in an agricultural family to Nara Kharjura Naidu and his wife Amanamma. He has a younger brother Nara Ramamurthy Naidu and two younger sisters. Naidu has vitiligo, an autoimmune disease which causes white patches on the skin.

Since his village had no school, Naidu attended primary school in Seshapuram up to class five and the Chandragiri Government High School up to class 10. He completed his B.A. degree in 1972 from Sri Venkateshwara Arts College, Tirupati. He did his Masters in Economics from Sri Venkateswara University. In 1974, under the guidance of professor Dr. D. L. Narayana he started work on his Ph.D. on the topic of ''Economic ideas of Professor N. G. Ranga,'' but did not complete his Ph.D.

Career

Congress Party MLA and minister

Naidu started his political activities as a students' union leader in Sri Venkateswara University while pursuing his Masters. In 1975, he joined Indian Youth Congress and became the president for its local chapter in Pulicherla. After the emergency was imposed on the country in 1975, he became a close supporter of Sanjay Gandhi.

With the help of N. G. Ranga, Naidu secured a candidacy from the Congress party, under its 20% quota for the youth, and became a member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for the Chandragiri constituency in 1978 at the age of 28. He served as a director of Andhra Pradesh Small Scale Industries Development Corporation. Later, he was appointed as the minister for cinematography in T. Anjaiah's government. He became the youngest MLA and the youngest minister, at the age of 28, in Andhra Pradesh at that time. After becoming a minister, he dropped his PhD program.

In 1979, he played a crucial role in electing G. Kuthuhalamma as Chittoor Zilla Parishad chief, against the official Congress candidate. Following this, he was suspended from the party for two months.

As the cinematography minister, Naidu came in contact with N. T. Rama Rao, a popular film star in Telugu cinema. In 1980, he married Bhuvaneswari, Rao's second daughter.

Losing as MLA and joining Telugu Desam Party

In 1982, N. T. Rama Rao formed the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and swept the assembly polls held in 1983. Chandrababu Naidu who was his son-in-law was still in the Congress Party and he even dared contesting against his father-in-law, NTR and Telugu Desam Party. But Naidu lost in the elections as an MLA from Chandragiri Assembly Constituency. Having no choice, he immediately left the Congress Party and joined Telugu Desam Party. He became the Finance and Revenue Minister in N. T. Rama Rao's ministry.

Chief minister of United Andhra Pradesh (1995-2004)

Chandrababu Naidu who continued as a Minister in NTR's cabinet revolted against him to much surprise. He gathered many TDP MLAs in Viceroy Hotel and demonstrated a non co-operation against the then Chief Minsiter, NTR. This saw NTR losing his Chief Minister post. NTR was even expelled from the Party by Chandrababu Naidu and he eventually became the Chief Minister in 1995 with the support of party's MLAs.

This incident is also sometimes referred to as the backstabbing by Chandrababu Naidu. In an interview with '' Reuters'', Rama Rao compared himself to Shah Jahan, a 17th-century Mughal emperor who was imprisoned by his son, and predicted that he would gain his revenge against what he called "the backstabbers" in his family, especially his son-in-law and successor, Naidu.

NTR who was expelled from the Telugu Desam Party died in the year 1995 and the party continued under the leadership of Chandrababu Naidu. The party won a majority in the state legislature, with 185 of 294 seats in the Assembly and 29 of 42 seats in the Parliament in the 1999 general election, making it the second-largest party in the BJP-led NDA coalition government.

On 1 October 2003, Naidu survived a land mine blast by People's War Group (PWG) near Alipiri tollgate, within the vicinity of Alipiri police station. A total of 17 claymore mines were planted, of which 9 exploded.

2004 and 2009 elections

Farmers and majortiy sections of people got fed up with Chandrababu Naidu for his non welfare policies. Chandrababu Naidu after the assassination attempt on him, dissolved the assembly and went for early elections but he suffered a major backlash and lost as Chief Minister by winning only 47 seats out of the total 294 assembly segments and 5 of 42 in the Lok Sabha.

This was a humiliating and never before seen defeat then for him and also Telugu Desam Party.

Chandrababu Naidu who lost in 2004 Assembly elections repeated the same result again in 2009 Assembly elections. He formed a grand alliance with TRS Party, which pitched for the separate state of Telangana and also with CPI and CPM. This didn't go well with the people and he experienced the same defeat again. He and his party were restricted to only 92 seats out of 294 seats in the state assembly. Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy became the Chief Minister of the state again for the second time in 2009. He died the same year in a helicopter crash, just after commencing his second term.

Chief minister of Andhra Pradesh (2014-2019)

In 2014, Congress party passed the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014 which Naidu too supported for the bifurcation.

After the bifurcation of the Andhra Pradesh, Naidu and formed an alliance again with the Bharatiya Janata Party and Jana Sena Party and returned to power in Andhra Pradesh state, winning 102 seats out of 175 seats. The inclusion of Bharatiya Janata Party in the alliance made people believe that the state may get developed due to the central government's support. This made TDP win an outright majority. Naidu took oath as the first Chief Minister of the residuary state of Andhra Pradesh at Mangalagiri on the grounds of Acharya Nagarjuna University near Guntur.

2015 Cash for Vote Scam

The 2015 cash-for-votes scam was a political scandal, the second scandal of its kind since the 2008 cash-for-votes scandal. It started off when the TDP leaders of Telangana state were caught in video footage, aired in the media, offering bribes to a nominated MLA, Elvis Stephenson, for his vote in the 2015 elections of the Telangana Legislative Council. The TDP MLA Revanth Reddy was arrested by the Telangana Police when he was offering to Stephenson. Reddy was then presented before the court and was sent to jail. Similarly, the phone conversation, which was quoted as the voice of Naidu with Stephenson was aired in the news media.

In August 2016, Alla Ramakrishna Reddy filed a petition with a report from a forensic laboratory which confirmed the voice of Naidu in the tape to be genuine. The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) court order the Telangana division of the ACB to investigate on the report. Naidu was not included in the preliminary charge sheet filed by the Enforcement Directorate in May 2021 in connection with the case.

Making his son a minister in the cabinet

Chandrababu Naidu after becoming the chief minister made his son, Nara Lokesh a Minister under his cabinet. This received criticism as his son, Nara Lokesh didn't even contest as an MLA for once and was given a cabinet minister through an MLC post. This didn't go well with people and also political observers.

Special status dispute and break with BJP

BJP promised special status to Andhra Pradesh after bifurcation but went back on it. Chandrababu Naidu who was in alliance with BJP too was not bothered about it and started going against people's will. There were many appeals from people to him to support the movement. But he put a blind eye on it. He even publicly said that there was no use with special status and continued in the alliance with BJP till 2018.

People started doing agitations and movements for the Speical status across the state. Chandrababu Naidu suppressed all these agitations and movements. Some of TDP leaders even openly criticized people for these agitations. This ultimately brought a great backlash from people. After sensing this great backlash from the people, he took a U- turn on the issue and started supporting the movement. This U-turn completely damaged him and made people move away from him.

After receiving a great backlash from people regarding the special status, Chandrababu Naidu who formed an alliance with BJP before 2014 elections came out of the alliance fearing a defeat in the upcoming 2019 elections. Ironically, he started accusing the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi and some of the leaders of BJP for not granting Special Status to Andhra Pradesh. He had also ridiculously started supporting the Special Status movement after suppressing the very movement for so long. This brought a bad name to him from people's side heavily.

He even went forward and planned a movement, ''Dharma Porata Deeksha'' accusing BJP and Narendra Modi of not granting Special Status to Andhra Pradesh. He even planned the movement in Delhi and took many TDP leaders to Delhi by a train and staged a hunger-strike protest. All these political gimmicks didn't go well with the people. These U-turn tactics have ultimately damaged him completely.

Alliance with the Congress Party

Chandrababu Naidu after coming out of alliance with BJP formed an alliance with Telugu Desam Party's rival Congress Party. This didn't go well with people and many political observers. Congress Party is regarded as the rival party of TDP for many years. It is also the party which bifurcated the state hastily. Forming an alliance with such Party completely damaged the image of TDP.

Leader of the opposition (2019–present)

Led by Naidu, TDP lost the 2019 Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly election to the YSR Congress Party led by Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy. It was the party's biggest defeat since its inception in 1982; TDP won 23 assembly seats out of 175 and 3 Lok Sabha seats out of 25.

Political alliances

Chandrababu Naidu has a history of alliances with almost every party of the state except with YSR Congress Party. He got into alliance with BJP, Congress Party, TRS, CPI, CPM and Janasena Party. Naidu also has a bad reputation of not winning the elections without an alliance. He also earned a bad name of coming out of the alliances with all the parties he aligned with for his own political reasons.

Business career

The Heritage Group (HFL) was incorporated by Naidu in 1992. In 1994, HFL went for public issue to raise resources. Currently, the organisation is being led by Nara Brahmani, Naidu's daughter-in-law. Heritage has hundreds of outlets throughout Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and a significant presence in Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Odisha, NCR-Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttarakhand, and Himachal Pradesh which comprises a solid portion of Naidu's current assets.

Awards and recognition

*The then Governor of Illinois, Jim Edgar, created a ''Naidu day'' on 24 September 1998 in his honour.
* Voted ''IT Indian of the Millennium'' in a poll by '' India Today'' and 20:20 Media.
*He was named ''South Asian of the Year'' in 1999 by '' Time'' magazine, USA
*In 2001, he was described as one of the hidden "''Seven working wonders around the world''", by Profit, a monthly magazine published by Oracle Corporation, US.
*''Business Person of the Year'' by Economic Times.
*''Golden Peacock Award'' for Leadership in Public Service & Economic Transformation - 2017
*''Global Agriculture Policy Leadership Award'' by Indian Council of Food and Agriculture (ICFA).
* The Pune-based organisation, Bharatiya Chatra Sansad, in partnership with MIT School of Governance, honoured him with ''Aadarsh Mukhyamantri Puraskar'' (Model CM Award) in its 6th annual session on 30 January 2016.
*''Transformative Chief Minister Award'' in May 2017 by US-India Business Council (USIBC) at West Coast Summit in the Silicon Valley.

Notes

References

Bibliography

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Further reading

Books

* ''India's Glocal Leader'', Tejaswini Pagadala
* ''Manasulo Maata'', Sevanthi Nenon, An Autobiography of Chandrababu Naidu
*''Nirantar Pragathi Ke Path Par Chandrababu Naidu'' (in Hindi), Dr. Inagati Lavanya

Case studies

*''New Modern Economy Management in Andhra Pradesh: A Case Study of Sri Honorable Chief Minister N Chandra Babu Naidu'' by authors N. Sree Ramulu and Morusu Siva Sankar

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Naidu, N. Chandrababu
1950 births
Living people
People from Chittoor district
Sri Venkateswara University alumni
Telugu politicians
Telugu Desam Party politicians
Indian National Congress politicians from Andhra Pradesh
Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh
Chief ministers from Telugu Desam Party
Andhra Pradesh MLAs 1978–1983
Andhra Pradesh MLAs 1989–1994
Andhra Pradesh MLAs 1994–1999
Andhra Pradesh MLAs 1999–2004
Andhra Pradesh MLAs 2004–2009
Andhra Pradesh MLAs 2014–2019
Andhra Pradesh MLAs 2019–2024
People with vitiligo