One year on, Naidu on the defensive

HYDERABAD: On the afternoon of May 16, 2014, as news trickled in that the TDP will comfortably cross the simple majority mark needed in the 175-member Andhra Pradesh Assembly, Naidu, who was monitoring the results from his Jubilee Hills residence, reportedly remarked to his close aides: "I will re-build Andhra Pradesh and develop at least two to three Hyderabads." However, a year down the line, there is not much progress to be reported on many fronts.
The chief minister and his cabinet have spent the year focusing on the new capital Amaravati, due to which the other endeavours that the government set forth to do, including improving the finances, securing special category status, attracting investments in various sectors, shifting of the government offices to temporary spaces in Vijayawada, and addressing the contentious issues between AP and Telangana, have all fallen by the wayside.
The issue of special status for AP is shrouded in confusion and neither the Centre nor the state seems to have any clue as to whether it will happen or not. In the meantime, the money sought by the TDP government from the Centre to bridge the revenue deficit as well as to construct the new capital has not been forthcoming. Apart from releasing a little over Rs 8,000 crore (See Box), the Centre has given some assurances (not only to AP but also to Telangana) that there will be some incentives for the industrial sector.
As a result, Naidu fell back on raising revenue from an unlikely source — the sale and export of red sanders. While the red sanders auction has fetched the state only Rs 800 crore so far, the focus on the precious wood has boomeranged on Naidu due to the encounter killing of 20 Tamil Nadu labourers in the Seshachalam forests in Chittoor on April 7 this year. With the high court seized of the matter, the incident has ended up as the second biggest blot in the Naidu administration during its first year.
It can be safely said that the first 365 days of the TDP regime has been marked by fixation on the new capital Amaravati and the massive land pooling exercise. While Naidu says that the first phase of the new capital will be ready by 2018, AP officials are doubtful whether it will be up and standing even by the time the assembly elections are held in 2019. While the major portion of land needed for the capital has been acquired through the land pooling system, many hiccups still remain. There are indications that the land acquisition process will drag on for some more time.
In the meantime, investments have been only trickling in, that too in a few sectors. No IT major is willing to commit to opening up offices in AP or even expanding the existing ones. This is because of a lack of social life and infrastructure in any of the major cities in AP. The shifting of offices from Hyderabad to temporary locations in Vijayawada too has not happened despite several deadlines. State government employees, despite receiving a 43 per cent salary hike, are willing to re-locate only on certain conditions, including that it should happen at the beginning of the school academic year, housing units should be provided and the housing allowance should be increased to bring it on par with Hyderabad.
But it is towards the end of his first year in office that the biggest embarrassment and possibly a game-changer has shaken Naidu like never before in his political career — the Revanth Reddy episode — in which the TDP MLA was caught by the Telangana ACB red-handed while bribing independent MLA Elvis Stephenson with Rs 50 lakh cash and promise of Rs 4.5 crore more for voting in favour of the TDP candidate in the MLC elections. Video recordings of the incident revealed an over-confident Revanth shooting his mouth off, nailing himself and his boss in the process.
Thus as the AP government prepares to celebrate one year in office on June 8, it is not the development of AP or the new capital or welfare schemes that will pre-occupy Naidu. How to extricate himself from the Revanth episode will be the only issue that will be in the mind of the TDP president and chief minister of Andhra Pradesh as the incident has the potential of unseating Naidu from both these positions.