A diehard politico undeterred by setbacks

Amaravati: Five years after suffering a humiliating defeat at the hands of a much younger Jagan Mohan Reddy, TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu on Tuesday registered a landslide victory in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly polls, with allies BJP and Jana Sena Party (JNP) in tow.

In the process, he kept a vow he took in 2021, to step back into the House as Chief Minister. In 2021, protesting some comments made against his family members, Naidu walked out of the Assembly and said he would come back only after he becomes Chief Minister again.

In Naidu’s latest electoral triumph, the TDP on its own has registered two-thirds majority, while it has contested the general elections in alliance with the JSP and BJP. This victory comes for the TDP chief months after his arrest in an alleged corruption case.

In the outgoing House, the TDP had 23 members. The TDP put up a good show in the Lok Sabha polls as well, winning 16 of the total 25 seats.

Born on April 20, 1950 at Naravaripalli in undivided Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh, Nara Chandrababu Naidu started his more than four-decade long political career on the student politics platform at Sri Venkateswara University in Tirupati.

Following that solid foundation, Naidu (74) joined the Congress party and went on to become a Cabinet Minister. However, he later jumped ship to the TDP founded by his late father-in-law and legendary actor N T Rama Rao. Naidu first ascended the Chief Minister’s chair in 1995 and went on to become a three-time Chief Minister.

His first two terms as Chief Minister came during the era of united Andhra Pradesh, beginning from 1995 and ending in 2004, nine years at a stretch while the third term came post bifurcation of the united state. Telangana was carved out of Andhra Pradesh 10 years ago.

As the CM of erstwhile undivided State, he emerged as the chief architect of modern Hyderabad, playing a key role in developing the hi-tech city and turning it into a major hub. During the late 90s, Naidu played a key role in the formation of the Central government of that time and the first NDA government formed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee was supported from outside by the TDP.

In 2014, Naidu emerged as the first Chief Minister of the residuary state of Andhra Pradesh and served it until 2019. In his third-term as CM, he championed Amaravati to be the capital city of the southern State but losing power left his brainchild as an unfulfilled promise, especially after his successor and YSRCP supremo Jagan Mohan Reddy dealt a debilitating blow to Amaravati.

Moreover, Naidu’s arrest in 2023 under the Skill Development Corporation Scam case by the YSRCP government was the lowest point in his career. After a pre-dawn arrest on September 9, Naidu spent nearly two months in the Rajamahendravaram Central Jail. However, an interim bail on October 31, which was made absolute on November 20 set Naidu free to prepare for the 2024 polls, enabling him to join the NDA alliance of TDP, BJP and Jana Sena.