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Naidu packs the laptop, woos the electorate

Ch Sushil Rao in Hyderabad

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu has decided to shelve his corporate, IT-friendly image, at least till the upcoming elections are dealt with.

He has reason to worry since the Congress is gaining ground in his state again, a fact underlined by an adverse intelligence report about the Telugu Desam Party's chances in the assembly election due next year.

While the report did not quite predict that the TDP would be badly beaten, it claimed the party's image had definitely eroded and that it was likely to lose at least a few seats.

Naidu, who has made his presence felt at various business meetings, using multimedia presentations to promote the state's interests, has now decided it would not be wise to go further. Instead, he now wants to concentrate on meeting the minimum requirements of villagers since it is they who would make or break his party.

''Deciding not to use his computer for making presentations and avoiding the publicity that comes through it is one of Naidu's many plans to identify himself with the common man," an official in the chief minister's secretariat told Rediff On The NeT today, refusing to elaborate.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi is a worrying factor for him. The Congress wins in the recent assembly election have worried Naidu, especially since he backs the Bharatiya Janata Party government at the Centre.

Moreover, Andhra Pradesh Congress president Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy has been trying his best to revitalise the party, and any such revival will naturally be at the TDP's expense.

What has added to Naidu's woes is 'Lady Amitabh' Vijay Shanti's banner of revolt against the BJP, accusing it of promoting the TDP's interests at the saffron brigade's expense. The actress had campaigned for the BJP in the1998 general election.

The Telugu superstar said she is disillusioned with the way the BJP is functioning since it did not seem to care any more for the voter or the party cadres in the state. She also complained that the BJP did not give due representation to the state in the Union ministry. The state has only one representative -- Minister of State for Urban Development Bandaru Dattretreya in the ministry.

The actress alleged that the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government was accommodating the TDP members of Parliament in governmental posts while giving a raw deal to the state BJP MPs.

No wonder Naidu is in a fix. Though he has taken up several programmes for the people, including the popular Janmabhoomi programme, allegations persist that the programme benefited only his party members.

So while Naidu himself makes no computer presentations anymore for the time being, his special secretary Ranadeep Sudan fills in for him whenever necessary.

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