Naidu accepts defeat, to play constructive role in opposition

After nine long years, it is curtains for the Telugu Desam Party in Andhra Pradesh in Elections 2004. The party chief and outgoing chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu submitted his resignation to governor Surjit Singh Barnala yesterday.

Naidu who was the longest serving chief minister of the state masked his disappointment with the results and announced that he would gracefully accept the verdict of the people.

The rout in the elections has come as a very sudden and rude jolt to the high flying and hi-tech chief minister. In fact, this election is one of the costliest the state has ever witnessed, with an estimated expenditure of close to Rs 2,000 crore.

Political parties in the state estimate that the TDP alone would have spent more than Rs 1,300 crore on these elections, and that is another reason why the loss would be that much more bitter to the TDP and Naidu.

The most high-profile chief minister in the country, with a reputation of micro-managing issues in the party and the state government, was clearly out of his depth this time round.

A man who liked to think of himself as the CEO of the state has other bigger problems to immediately handle. Problems of keeping anticipated dissidence at bay, quelling questions on his autocratic leadership style, and also ensure that a vibrant second rung of leadership develops within the party.

Critics point out that as Naidu was basically an insecure leader he never actually allowed a strong second rung of leadership to develop in the party.

"This will adversely impact the TDP in its efforts to recoup and make a strong and spirited effort at coming back to power," a long time political observer points out.

Naidu, who took the art of politics to a professional level by introducing surveys, exit polls among other mood gauging techniques of the masses was confident of his victory till the last. He actually engaged his party machinery on a post-mortem exercise right after the second phase of elections in the state was over.

He even went to the extent of pronouncing the exact number of seats he expected the TDP to win after this exercise "� something which he had never done.

In one of his recent interactions with the media, he announced that the TDP would get at least 160 seats. He had actually rubbished the exit poll surveys conducted by certain TV channels which predicted a Congress victory as unscientific.

But his own surveys and exit polls beside the party's constituency level reports miserably failed in sensing the humiliating defeat that the TDP has experienced for the first time after its formation in 1982.

His cash rich party has spent crores and crores of rupees on the campaign, media publicity and on other activities to influence the voters mind set. The TDP's defeat despite Naidu's efficient handling of the election campaign is shocking to his well-wishers.

"Clearly the fact that he introduced reforms, charged farmers for power, was seen more as a chief minister who was interested in information technology rather than looking at the ravage that the three years of drought had wrought on the farmers, worked against him. He deserved to go and the vote is in the right direction," a TDP critic pointed out.

"This defeat is psychologically shattering for the morale of the TDP cadre. At the same time there are no emerging leaders in the party who can actually help lift the sagging spirits of the cadre. Naidu ensured he was the be-all and end-all of the party and he alone has to take responsibility for this kind of performance by the TDP," a critic within the TDP said.

Earlier, addressing a press conference at his residence in the city, Naidu accepted defeat and said that his party would extend cooperation to the new government in all its good work and play a constructive role as an opposition in the interests of the people.

At the media conference, just before he was scheduled to meet the governor to formally submit his resignation, Naidu opined that people in the state wanted a change irrespective of the development that his government ushered in to the state.

Refusing to delve in to the reasons behind the overwhelming mood shift of the masses Naidu said that he and his party would sit and analyse the results in the days to come.

"From Hyderabad to Srikakulam and East Godavari districts, the trend is uniform. Many good people with great integrity have lost in these elections. This clearly shows that change was foremost in the minds of the people," Naidu said.

"We raised certain issues in the elections, but the people gave their own verdict. We will see what is to be done in future," he said.

Naidu said that he had no regrets whatsoever as he had done his best to the state of Andhra Pradesh. "We will serve the people irrespective of whether in the government or in the opposition," he said.

"We developed a model state with a right mixture of both welfare and development. I have absolutely no regrets," he said.

He was a bit critical of the criticism about his government concentrating only on cities and especially Hyderabad by ignoring the rural areas.

"See the results are same every where, including in Hyderabad, which I have never expected," Naidu commented.

He thanked the people of Andhra Pradesh, the NDA government, officials, government employees, party cadres and party leaders for their support in his nine-year tenure as chief minister.