Naidu’s virtual trap

Chandrababu Naidu flew in the virtual world, but was grounded by the real voters of Andhra Pradesh. His fundamental flaw was that he did not...

Chandrababu Naidu flew in the virtual world, but was grounded by the real voters of Andhra Pradesh. His fundamental flaw was that he did not practice what he preached. If he had understood the real power of IT, he would have realised that the IT is powerful when it is used as a network to share and decentralise information flow. While his image grew, Naidu got more isolated from his own people. He was trapped in the image he sought to create. The voters of Andhra have now burst that bubble.

He sought to remake Hyderabad as Cyberabad. But the fact is that, in the last five years, Hyderabad’s appeal to IT sector investment has declined. From being the third most attractive city in 1999, it is the fifth today. Bangalore attracts 35-40 per cent of investment in this sector, followed by Chennai, Noida, and Mumbai at 15 per cent. Hyderabad is at 10 per cent.

Naidu claims that he has worked tirelessly to make AP a model state. He had certainly raised its global profile and secured over Rs 55,000 crore as loans from the World Bank and other global agencies. His association with BJP-NDA gave him access to an additional Rs 3,500 crore from the Centre. Yet this money did not improve AP’s growth rate. When the national economy recorded an average growth of about 5.5 per cent over the last five years, in AP it was only 4.5 per cent.

Story continues below this ad

Naidu hoped that the TDP’s modern outlook, profile and connectivity will attract the youth. Instead, his appeal among first-time voters in the age group of 18-21 years declined dramatically. Naidu had always sought to empower the women. He launched many schemes aimed at them and sought to increase their participation in decision making. Yet, the popularity of the TDP fell behind that of the Congress even in this segment by over 12 per cent.

His proximity to the NDA government in Delhi fetched him a record 50 lakh tonnes of foodgrain to help the poor and drought affected farmers. Obviously, this was either not enough, or did not reach the intended target. The Congress support among the poor rose by over 17 per cent. But even among the educated classes, the Congress had a 6 per cent edge over the TDP. Nothing underlines this more than the fact that the TDP lost in Naidu’s model city of Hyderabad. Over the last few years, Hyderabad had got transformed into one of the best maintained urban areas in India. But it takes more than this to meet the expectations of voters. Naidu unwillingness to stand up to BJP in the aftermath of the Gujarat riots, may have contributed to undermining his support among both Hindus and Muslims who have traditionally lived in harmony in this historic city.

The issue of a separate statehood for Telangana was an emotive one and the Congress’s alliance with the TRS was expected to help it considerably. The TDP, however, hoped to gain from a backlash that this would have in the other two regions of the state. But it didn’t materialise. Expectedly, TDP lost four of the five seats it contested in Telangana. But it also lost by the same margin in the coastal region, a TDP stronghold. As for Naidu’s own region of Rayalaseema, it lost in one of every two seats it contested.

So will the Congress and its allies perform any better? Only time will tell. But it will have to learn the right lessons from the TDP defeat and address that glaring disconnect between the cyber and the real world if it has any hopes of doing so.