When Nara Chandrababu Naidu was sworn in as the chief minister of the now bifurcated Andhra Pradesh (AP) at 7.27 pm on 8 June 2014 - the time carefully chosen for its auspicious muhurtham - he might have reflected for a few moments on the previous occasion when he rose to the state's top job. And how starkly different things are this time around. For one, his beloved Hyderabad, which he so diligently sought to cultivate as one of the information technology hubs of India at the turn of the millennium, is no longer a part of the residuary state of Andhra Pradesh (officially, the city will be the joint capital for 10 years before becoming the sole capital of the newly-formed Telangana state).
Also, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president is now the chief minister of a state (Seemandhra, as it's also called), approximately half its earlier size, and the creation of a new capital is only one of his many daunting tasks ahead. After the separation of Telangana, the new, smaller AP has an area of around 1.6 lakh square km and a population of around 5 crore.
But what a triumph it has been for the 64-year-old Naidu! After a decade in political wilderness, he led his party to a thumping victory in the 2014 assembly elections, with the TDP winning 102 of the 175 assembly seats. In the Lok Sabha polls too, the TDP-BJP combine emerged with the highest tally in the region.
Chandrababu Naidu was born on 20th April 1950 in Chittoor district in the Rayalaseema region of Andhra Pradesh in a farmer's household to Karjoora and Ammannama. Naidu was the eldest child and he has two younger sisters and a brother.
Though he himself was uneducated, Karjoora made it a point to educate his children.
Naidu studied at schools in the Seshapuram gram panchayat and Chandragiri. He went on to secure a Bachelor's degree in economics from Tirupati's S.V. Arts College. This was followed by a post-graduate degree. It was during his college days that he was attracted to social and political causes. Naidu's contemporaries at S.V. University included political figures such as K.S. Narayana and Pileru R. Reddy.
Thanks to his leadership skills and interest in politics, Naidu rose to become the president of the local Youth Congress. The decisive turning point in his political career came when he contested and won in the 1978 assembly polls. At the age of 28, not only did he become an MLA, but also the youngest minister in the AP cabinet.
A rising star, he was given the portfolio of technical education and cinematography. His political clout was further enhanced in 1980 when he married Bhuvaneswari, the second daughter of Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao, better known as NTR - the iconic Telugu film star who later became chief minister of Andhra Pradesh.
Interestingly, when in March 1982 NTR floated his own political party, the TDP - to capture the anti-Congress vote in the state - Naidu remained in the Congress. But the Congress performed disastrously in the 1983 assembly elections, and the TDP-combine swept to victory with 201 seats in the 294-member House. NTR became the 10th chief minister of the state. Naidu soon joined the TDP, and became a close aide of NTR. With the Congress emerging victorious in the 1989 state polls, Naidu became an important opposition leader in the state assembly.
The TDP won the next assembly election but following a political coup by Naidu in 1995, NTR was ousted from power and Naidu became the AP chief minister. He also took over the leadership of the TDP.
From early on, Naidu fashioned himself as a tech-savvy chief minister with a managerial style of functioning. He came out with a "Vision 2020" for the state and declared that he preferred to be known as the chief executive rather than chief minister of the state.
According to his vision document, Andhra Pradesh would be a transformed state by 2020, and information technology would play a key role in this transformation. Specifically, Naidu drew up ambitious plans to turn Hyderabad into an information technology hub. Many of these plans were implemented in his eight-plus years as CM. His image was that of a hard-working CEO, analysing data from computers in his office in the capital and acting accordingly.
The World Bank was roped in as an adviser. Foreign leaders came calling, often making Hyderabad their second destination after New Delhi. The international media lauded him. The influential Time magazine named him South Asian of the Year. Several services and IT companies set up shop in Hyderabad - or "Cyberabad" as it was sometimes called.
A May 1997 profile of the chief minister in Outlook magazine noted: "[A]mong his supporters, he is known as the high-tech but down-to-earth chief minister. Armed with his laptop, Naidu talks about progress through new age technology to the farmers in rural Andhra as well as bureaucrats in Hyderabad. Wherever he goes, he talks about how information technology is vital for the progress of the state. Business delegations which come to meet him are handed the government's investment options on floppies".
Naidu led his party to victory in the 1999 assembly elections, with the TDP combine winning 185 seats. Though he tried to consolidate his image of the forward-looking chief minister in the next term (1999-2004) as well, there were rumblings of discontent.
On the one hand, critics accused him of being disconnected with the rural AP and obsessively focussing on Hyderabad; on the other hand, some commentators maintained that his credentials as a reformist were suspect as his government had continued several populist schemes of the TDP which were, in fact, driving the state to bankruptcy.
In the 2004 state elections, the electorate of Andhra Pradesh were clearly unhappy at the state of their state - and the TDP-BJP alliance was thrown out of office, winning a mere 49 seats. The Congress and its allies formed the next government. Political pundits formulated various theories about the TDP's loss. Naidu on his part cited the drought in the state, the timing of the elections, propaganda against his government and the loss of the minority vote because of the 2002 Gujarat riots as the chief reasons for the debacle. But he vowed to rebuild his party and stage a comeback. He defended his government's policies and refuted allegations that he had only focussed on urban parts of the state.
Though the TDP bettered its performance in the 2009 assembly polls, the Congress retained power in the state.
The next few years were the most dramatic in AP's history as the movement for a separate state of Telangana gained irresistible momentum. A majority of the prominent state leaders from the Congress, BJP and TDP flip-flopped on the Telangana issue; Naidu was no exception. But eventually, Telangana became a separate state . Nevertheless, with the bifurcation of AP becoming a reality, Naidu once again joined hands with the BJP just before the 2014 Lok Sabha and assembly polls. The electorate of Seemandhra region largely unhappy with the Congress-led UPA for having split the state, backed Naidu, anointing him as the chief minister again.
In his initial comments to the media after his comeback, he said: "I am a fighter and this election result proved that. I fought against Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and state CMs, including Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy (the former Andhra Pradesh chief minister), and have always emerged victorious." But how different will Naidu be from his earlier avatar as chief executive? We will have to wait and watch as he grapples with the newer challenges of running a smaller state.
Yet in the ultimate analysis, Naidu's strategy to align with NDA proved right, though he had earlier attributed his defeat in the 2004 polls to Gujarat riots. Thanks to his clout in the NDA government, he can push for getting the crucial financial aid from the Centre for implementing various development schemes in his state.
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