How Naidu.com survived its Y2K

Electoral arithmetic has helped, the BJP votes certainly did. But hate for the ruler is so high in Indian states that few survive the tide. What made Naidu click among the rural masses of Andhra Pradesh, far from the cyberati, far from the High-Tech city of his dreams? Good governance.

He set up an Indian Institute of Information Technology, Hi-Tech city, and an international business school inHyderabad. He is all set to launch a network connecting all district headquarters to the state capital and computerisation of all government departments.

Apart from his pathfinding reforms that pushed the babudom to the Bill Gates generation, and brought software giants to the dry landscape of Andhra Pradesh, Naidu unveiled a string of development schemes. In the battle that matters most, he was supported by the women and youth of the state.

While computerisation attracted the youth and the urban crowd, Naidu focussed on the rural Andhra and women. Here are some of the schemes that got him votes:

A novel self-help programme under which the beneficiaries would have to contribute only up to 30 per cent of the total cost of the project.

A welfare scheme to supply improved tool-kits to the rural artisans.

A welfare package for the SCs.

An economic package for the physically handicapped.

An economic as well as social package for Muslims.

A scheme to encourage women thrift groups in rural areas. Naidu accorded top priority to this scheme.

A scheme to supply LPG connections to the rural women from the families below the poverty line. Naidu has promised ten lakh free connections.

Naidu also promoted self-help groups in different sectors 8212; water users associations to supervise the major and minor irrigation sources, mothers8217; committees to supervise Anaganwadis, village education committees to monitor the schools in rural areas.

Yet, the pulls of the anti-incumbency factor were visible. The TDP-BJP combine will have 60 seats less than the previous tally. The margins of many ruling party candidates were slender this time. In Telengana and Rayalaseema, the Congress did well. In fact more than 60 of its 80-plus seats came from this region.

The reason could be the neglect of the farmers, particularly in the respect of power supply which waserratic. Farmers have committed suicides in this perennially drought-prone region where canal irrigation is still a distant dream. They were, therefore, naturally swayed by the Congress8217;s populist promise to provide free power. Naidu took up the task of desilting tail-end canals which were neglected by all earlier governments, but this mainly benefited the farmers in the coastal belt.