Elections, one the biggest number game in India and Political parties will be battling for government. Leaders play a crucial role in the elections, they fight, criticize, make friends, promises to win at any cost. However in any given situation few leaders win the elections effortlessly. Here is the first part of undisputed horses and we will start with the man who ruled Andhra Pradesh for nine years and Telugu Desam Party [TDP] president Nara Chandrababu Naidu.

Mr. Naidu made his political entry in the year 1978. He contested from Chandragiri constituency on behalf of Congress party and won the election. Mr. Naidu became Minister of Technical Education and Cinematography in T. Anjaiah's cabinet, at the age 28 and was the state's youngest assembly member and minister.

But in 1983 elections, with emergence of Telugu Desam Party by actor NTR, Chandrababu lost the elections to TDP candidate Venkatarama Naidu. Later in the year 1984, Chandrababu shifted to TDP party. As Naidu became NTR's son-in-law he was appointed as the TDP general secretary and within no time Naidu importance in the party increased. In the 1989 Assembly elections, Naidu stood in his native constituency of Kuppam and won by a margin of 5,000 votes. However the Congress Party was voted into power and Naidu had to sit in the opposition.

Remarkable Turn

Naidu did not move to Congress again and remained in TDP and was an active member. In the 1994 elections, Naidu campaigned intensively and all his efforts were paid off. TDP was voted into power. Naidu became Finance and Revenue Minister in NTR's cabinet. But with NTR marrying Lakshmi Parvathi and her influence growing in party, Naidu gathered all the TDP MLAs on his side and dethroned NTR from the chief minister post. On 1 September 1995, Naidu became the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh and also the president of Telugu Desam Party. With NTR's death, Naidu took complete charge of TDP and lead it to victory in the 1999 general elections. TDP won 185 of 294 seats in the Assembly and 29 of 42 Lok Sabha seats.

As Chief Minister

Chandrababu is the sole man to bring the Information Technology [IT] sector to Hyderabad. The slogan “Bye-bye Bangalore... Hello Hyderabad” was introduced by Naidu to attract the IT companies. He was instrumental in bring technology giant Microsoft Corporation to Hyderabad, outside Seattle the second software-development centre was established in the city.  Naidu also encouraged other global IT companies like IBM, Dell, Deloitte, Computer Associates and Oracle making presentations to global CEOs convincing them to invest in the state. CNN has hailed Naidu's Vision 2020 concept and Time magazine named him South Asian of the Year. In the year 2000, then American President Bill Clinton and Tony Blair visited Hyderabad.

However, Naidu completely ignored the agriculture sector and for which he paid the price. In 2004 general elections, TDP lost the polls and only 47 members of TDP won the elections out of 294. in 2009 too TDP was confined to opposition despite promising color TV, free power to the farmers. Currently TDP is in struggling with the bifurcation issue. Even Chandrababu had to face the heat of the public and in the 2010 by elections, Chandrababu did not dare to campaign as he went back on his words. And also the YSR Congress party has hurt the party very badly. With two successive terms sitting in opposition and with state getting divided, the 2014 elections are very prestigious for TDP as well as Naidu. He promised to make Seemandhra region another Singapore but we have to wait till May 16th as the elections results will be declared on the same day.

(AW: Vamshi)