Chandrababu Naidu's victory comes barely eight months after his political career seemingly crashed in September 2023 when the YSRCP government arrested him in an alleged corruption case.
'Hyderabad was built by Quli Qutub Shah and I built Cyberabad around Hyderabad.' Nara Chandrababu Naidu, 74, is a rare political leader who can make such a claim about their work as a chief minister.
As the Telugu Desam Party chief storms back to power in Andhra Pradesh and emerges as a likely kingmaker nationally, it marks another chapter for the blue-eyed leader of India's information technology sector.
Naidu, who was the chief minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh from 1995 to 2004, is credited for making Hyderabad a technology hub.
He became the first chief minister of the residuary state of Andhra Pradesh after bifurcation in 2014.
He was defeated by the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) in 2019, but five years later a TDP-led alliance (Bharatiya Janata Party and Janasena Party) is leading in 165 of the 175 seats in the state assembly.
The TDP won 16 of the state's 25 Lok Sabha seats, becoming a key force nationally (the BJP won three seats and the Janasena two).
Naidu's victory comes barely eight months after his political career seemingly crashed in September 2023 when the YSRCP government arrested him in an alleged corruption case.
Naidu spent nearly two months in the Rajamahendravaram central jail and was released on bail some months later.
Naidu's supporters often recall a meeting between him and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates in the late 1990s to highlight his pro-industry image.
Gates was supposed to meet Naidu, who was then chief minister, for 10 minutes but impressed by the politician's vision he extended it to 45 minutes.
That meeting resulted in Microsoft deciding to locate its India Development Centre in Andhra Pradesh.
Naidu, who was born on April 20, 1950, in Naravaripalli, Chittoor, has had ups and downs in his four-decade long political career.
He started as a student politician at Sri Venkateswara University in Tirupati in the 1970s.
He was with the Congress and a firm supporter of Sanjay Gandhi during the Emergency before joining the TDP, which was founded by his late father-in-law and Telugu movie superstar N T Rama Rao.
Naidu first became chief minister in September 1995, after a coup against the TDP founder.
It is not the first time that Naidu will be playing a crucial role in national politics.
He had given outside support to the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in the late 1990s.
Riding on the support he got for developing the IT industry and infrastructure, Naidu returned to power in the 1999 elections.
Andhra Pradesh was bifurcated five years later and he became its first chief minister.
During this time, he launched several programmes -- one being 'Smart Village, Smart Ward' to transform rural Andhra Pradesh.
He wanted to make Amaravati the state's new capital, but the plan was stalled when YSRCP came to power in 2019.
In TDP's manifesto for the 2024 elections, Naidu promised several freebies to voters.
These include free travel for women in state-run buses, three free gas cylinders annually and Rs 20,000 investment support for farmers per annum.
He also promised creating 2 million jobs, a monthly unemployment allowance of Rs 3,000, Rs 15,000 per year for school students and Rs 1,500 per month for women between 19 and 59 years.
'I went to IT companies by foot in the US and other countries to convince them to set up their offices in Hyderabad,' he once said.
Naidu's ability to convince global industry leaders like Gates and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is a skill that Andhra Pradesh will bank on.
Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com
