Telugu Desam Party government in Andhra Pradesh has completed its third year in office and entered the fourth year on Thursday.
And chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu seems to be growing nervous, rather than being confident, as there is nothing much for him to boast about in the last three years.
Leading a divided state with just 13 districts, Naidu had to start from scratch on the development front.
And AP being a revenue deficit state, he could not completely fulfil his election promises, such as crop loan waiver, fee reimbursement, payment of allowance to the unemployed, provision of one job for every family, distribution of land to weaker sections etc.
He took nearly one year to settle down and spent most of his time on finalising the capital region, running around investors and rushing to the Centre for help.
He also tried to cover up his deficiencies by blaming it on the bifurcation.
In the second year, Naidu focussed on schemes like Pattiseema, holding Godavari Pushkarams, laying foundation stone for Amaravati capital and commencement of work for the Velagapudi capital.
The biggest achievement Naidu had was to acquire land for the capital through land pooling. He had to face a lot of legal battles in the process.
Third year was the toughest for Naidu, as he had to incur the wrath of the people for not securing special category status to AP and compromising with the Centre for special financial package.
The Polavaram works began at a brisk pace and the Velagapudi Secretariat and Assembly came into functioning. The biggest achievement was to move the entire administration from Hyderabad to Amaravati.
On the political front, Naidu was able to consolidate his party’s strength by admitting 21 MLAs and a couple of MPs from the YSR Congress party, but that only gave him a negative image in the public.
It also led to disgruntlement in the party, as four of the defectors could get berths in the Naidu cabinet at the cost of sincere and loyal party MLAs.
The cash-for-vote scam involving Naidu himself and a series of scams also spoiled the TDP image.
Now, Naidu has nothing much achievement to go to the people for votes again. He has to at least to take up partial completion of Amaravati capital and 100 per cent completion of Polavaram project to seek the mandate for the second term.
Otherwise, the negative factors overweigh the positive ones and might prove disastrous for his party.
