Invincible Chandrababu Naidu who defied gigantic BJP to build new AP

Amaravati: Nothing would have been as sweeter to Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu as the news that the BJP had tasted a humiliating defeat by losing two of the four Lok Sabha seats and nine of the 10 Assembly seats in the recent by-elections, a day ahead of Nava Nirmana Deeksha on Saturday, a day for the people to rededicate themselves for the reconstruction Andhra Pradesh.

The news of BJP’s debacle was very heartening since Naidu had been seething with rage against the BJP for “double-crossing” him and the state. In fact, it had warmed cockles of his heart to no end, if the statements made by his son and IT Minister Nara Lokesh on the outcome of the by-elections were any indication. Lokesh said: “The results reflected the public anger against the BJP’s high handedness, betrayal and misgovernance.”

After Naidu took over as the Chief Minister of the state on June 8, 2014, he inherited a club-shaped strip of land without a capital. Though he was Chief Minister of the state, he had no office where he could sit.  Initially, he tried to govern the state from Hyderabad, but soon it appeared very odd since he was ruling a state from another state.

In a few months, he started the mammoth process of shifting of employees to Vijayawada. He, in fact, came ahead of them and occupied the building which his Irrigation Minister D Umameshwara Rao built for himself as his temporary office. He used to sleep in a bus at nights.

After watching the travails of the state which had no head for one year, he decided that it was time for preparing the people for toiling hard for building a new state much better than any in the country. June 2, the appointed day for the division of the state thus became the day of poignant reminder of the unscientific division of the state. 

In scorching heat, Naidu addressed his first Nava Nirmana Deeksha public meeting at Benz Circle in Vijayawada on June 2, 2015, which set the direction for the state. After traversing four long years with the BJP, TDP’s allay, denouement came to Naidu. Scales having fallen from his eyes that the BJP was whiling away time and was not keen on delivering even the special package which it had promised in lieu of special status category and a host of promises made for the state in the AP State Reorganisation Act, 2014, he raised a banner of revolt by stepping out of the NDA government and finally from the NDA itself. 

Naidu, addressing a news conference at Amaravati on Thursday said that he had begun his efforts to raise Amaravati, which in his eyes, would be a global city, mammoth Polavaram Project and firing all sectors of economy offering whatever incentives he could to the industrial sector and then began looking for a booster dose from the Centre which never came.  

Naidu had repeatedly said he had visited Delhi 29 times for help to the state, even risking ridicule by his detractors, to drive home the point how callous the BJP had become in helping the state which needed hand holding. “I did not sit doing nothing hoping that help would come from Delhi. I have done what I could with whatever resources that were available,” he said on Friday, a day ahead of Nava Nirmana Deeksha.

Naidu had managed to get economy look up and his administration and reforms had even caught the attention of the World Bank which had adjudged AP as the best state in ease of doing business. The sluggish economy began picking up momentum and in the third year itself it clocked a double-digit growth of 10 per cent. The two partnership summits that Naidu had organised at Visakhapatnam had given an exposure to the international investment community.

Driven by political compulsions and by deep sense of anguish over being let down by the BJP, Naidu is now getting ready to discredit the BJP to the extent possible all over the nation since the BJP has no presence in Andhra Pradesh.  Naidu has pledged to take an active role at the national level to see that Narendra Modi would not become the Prime Minister for another term, to settle not only his political scores but also those of the people too.

“When I asked for help from the Centre, the BJP began conspiring against me. That is why I began working all by myself without waiting for help from anywhere. Nava Nirmana Deeksha is an occasion for everyone to lend shoulder to the effort in building the state,” Naidu said, appearing to not care for the BJP any longer.