Nara Chandrababu Naidu ’s resounding victory in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly elections has confounded political pundits and a majority of the people, too. His Telugu Desam Party (TDP) trounced the ruling YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) , led by Jagan Mohan Reddy, bagging 135 of the 175 Assembly seats. Five years ago, it was Mr.
Reddy who stormed to power in a near-similar fashion, leaving Mr. Naidu staring at what seemed like a bleak political future to many. Several commentators had even written him off.
However, it was clear that the election was not to be his political epitaph and that Mr. Naidu could not be dismissed so easily. Rather, it was always going to be difficult, if not impossible, for Mr.
Naidu to emulate the welfare path that Mr. Reddy had embarked upon, i.e.
, giving almost everyone everything gratis. The return of Mr. Naidu was going to be possible, among other factors, only if the policies and governance of Mr.
Reddy turned out to be blatantly anti-people and politically suicidal. Moreover, Mr. Naidu created a particular leadership style and party structure after ousting the TDP founder, N.
T. Rama Rao, who is also his father-in-law, in 1995. This structure did not allow space for a second rung of leadership, which would have enabled the TDP to plan for a smooth succession.
While this strategy worked for a while, it eventually boomeranged. While Mr. Naidu tried his best to groom his son, Nara Lokesh, as his successor, Mr.
Lokesh did not measure up. Instead, he tur.
