Chandrababu Naidu was born in Naravaripalli, eight kilometers from Chandragiri in Chittoor district. Just a little away from the temple town of Tirupati. There were hardly 27 families which inhabited the village and all of them were either farmers or were from the middle class who migrated to this place years back. The story goes that these families migrated from Kondaveedu area in Guntur. Kondaveedu is known for valour of it's kings and has a rich historical significance but is now only left with insignia and memories. Many displaced families relocated to Chandragiri which was once the capital of Kondaveedu.One farmer who moved to Naravaripalli near Chandragiri was Nara Karjoora Naidu and his wife Ammannama, parents of Chandrababu Naidu..
Neither Naravaripalli nor the family of Kharjoora Naidu were little known to the people of Andhra but thanks to Chandrababu Naidu, the village rose to prominence due to the laurels achieved by him. Eldest amongst his three siblings, a brother and two sisters, Chandrababu exhibited his talent, efficiency even while he was a child and rose to become one of the most astute politicians that Andhra Pradesh had ever produced.
Kharjoora Naidu was just like any ordinary farmer. He led a simple and a modest life and worked towards giving his children a decent future. He was a respected man in Naravaripalli and people in the neighbouring village looked upto his counsel. Because he did not go through primary education, he nurtured a dream to see his children Chandrababu Naidu and Ramamurthy Naidu study and take up respectable positions in the society. His life partner supported him in this endeavour.
| Education |
With the encouragement of his parents, Chandrababu would travel one and a half kilometer everyday to Seshapuram gram panchayat as there was no educational centre at Naravaripalli. Just not this place, thousands of villages those days lacked basic facilities like roads, drinking water. Education was a distant dream for many. Chandrababu's parents left no stone unturned to meet the educational requirement of their children.
Chandrababu was born on April 20th 1950. After his elementary education in Seshapuram, he had to go to Chandragiri to take up secondary education. He lived at his relative's home to finish the tenth standard. As he pursued higher education, his destination shifted to Tirupati. It was at the college premises and at the hostel, Chandrababu's leadership qualities surfaced. While studying BA economics, politics and history at SV Arts College, he had a deep understanding of the problems faced by the society.
Chandrababu did not confine himself to what was taught within the class room. Evenwhile studying BA he had established village development committees. His Vinayaka Sangham, a social development programme undertaken by him assumed full form during the vacations. He would gather the youth and swing into some developmental activity or the other at Naravaripalli. During 1972 while he was in college he gathered a crowd and laid a 5 km road to Bhimavaram. He took up the channelising of irrigation water to the fields and saw to it that each member from a family contributed to the earnings by joining the community work. Those who absented themselves were made to shell out Rs 100 which was a big amount those days. The idea of Shramadhaan and Janmabhoomi projects germinated around that time. Known as stubborn and.modern in outlook, he surprised people by bringing bulldozers to Narvaripalli to make ploughing easy and leveling of agricultural land. He diverted seepage water from cement pipes to irrigate fields and always strove to accomplish things innovatively.He was known for his leadership qualities, setting goals, working efficiently till he achieved them and these qualities helped him in honing his skills when he entered the political field.
Student Leader
The seeds for Chandrababu Naidu's future political life were laid during his college days at SV University. While studying MA Economics at the same university, and while doing research study on Acharya Ranga and his work on village economic development he became a student leader. He was a deciding factor in many of the student elections and student unions in the university. SV University became the foundation stone for many current politicians in Chittoor District and in Andhra Pradesh. Chittoor district congress leader Pileru Ramachandra Reddy and CPI State Joint Secretary KS Narayana are some of his contemporaries. Chandrababu was quite a multi-tasker handling agriculture, education at one end and social work and political activities on the other.
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| Political Entry |
Political Entry
During 1977 floods in Diviseema Chandrababu Naidu as Chandragiri Block Youth Secretary congregated the youth and provided support to the Diviseema flood victims. Around the same time the MLC elections was approaching and the Teachers Union along with the political parties participated actively in it. Chandrababu as a college graduate from his constituency and as a student leader was in the fray for the MLC election, the post which is for a duration of six years.
Chandrababu was unknown to many, he was merely a local face. With the support of the student unions he was game for the election and that created dissent within many senior local party workers. They made attempts to move from the scene on the basis that he was under aged and not qualified to contest. He withdrew his nomination. However this helped him indirectly, he was able to contest the Assembly elections in 1978. NTR established the Telugu Desam Party and heralded a new chapter in the State Politics.
The State Congress leadership dramatically and suddenly underwent a change. After it's defeat in 1977, there was a split in Congress again. Indira Gandhi was no more in power. Janata Party was at the helm and the State was headed by Jalagam Vengal Rao. National Congress Party leader was Kasu Brahmananda Reddy. The defeat in the election spoilt things for him and Indira Gandhi, he ostracised her from the Party.
Jalagam Vengal Rao remained in the Reddy Congress and Cong (I) was headed by PV Narasimha Rao in the State. Uttar Pradesh Governor Chenna Reddy after seeing the state politics aimed the chief ministers post in Andhra, during the critical political scene. After a role conflict Chenna Reddy decided join Congress (I). His entrance nullified PV and became an important political figure in State politics.
All the state congress leaders from MLAs, MPs to local leaders all preferred to remain Reddy Congress. The main reason being Jalagam Vengal Rao's good governance. With this change in scenario, Congress (I) was left with no members. There was a dearth of leaders in it and that paved way for a requirement of a new leader in Cong (I). When there was a void in State Cong I politics and Chandrababu Naidu entered the political scene as a youth leader from Chandragiri and after that there was no looking back from him.
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| As a Chief Minister |
Chandrababu always focused on reality, surmounted problems with ease, dexterity. His skill lay in absorbing the good from every aspect, striking relationships with the people and was good at goading them into working hard, infused enthusiasm in the work sphere. Never was seen exulting after a victory and continuously looked ahead to set next a goal. An able and an efficient administrator, he became synonymous with perfection and came to be known as an ideal politician. In the course of his political life, he had many an opportunity to occupy prestigious posts in the government but Babu never showed any inclination. One often heard him say that he never depended on luck but always believed in hard work.
Babu stepped into the Assembly in 1978 and thereafter never looked back, but that doesn't mean he had forgotton his past, his experiences. Between 1980 and 1983, he held various portfolios in the State government including those of Archives, Cinematography, Technical Education, Animal Husbandry, Dairy Development, Public Libraries and Minor Irrigation. He also served as head of the State government's Karshak Parishad looking after farmers' interests, before he quit the Congress and joined the TDP that had then just been founded by his father-in-law.
After he joined Telugu Desam, in 1984, the Congress (I) pulled a coup on the NTR government and Chandrababu played a crucial role in the campaign to restore democracy and reinstating the TDP government. That was when his leadership qualities came to the fore and he was made the chief co-ordinator of the Telugu Desam Party. He contested from the Kuppam constituency in 1989 elections and won with a thumping majority.
At the time TDP was in the Opposition. Chandrababu brought people's problems to the fore, highlighted it and fought for their cause. In 1994, TDP came back to power and Babu was given the finance, revenue portfolio. His farsightedness in drafting the policies stumped even the economists and won him laurels. During his tenure, he systematically introduced transperancy in government, breaking the tradition of inordinate secrecy in the finance department.
In 1995, he staged a family and party coup and eased out NTR to save the party from vested interests. As a chief minister he introduced many market-based reforms at the same time formulated many populist schemes which no other CM of Andhra Pradesh has ever launched. IT and ITES sectors boomed during his tenure, giving rise to a separate state level IT policy. Worked 18 hours a day, set an example and changed the mindset of the employees. Heaps of files in government offices were cleared regularly and he brought about revolutionary changes in the solving people's problems.
He was walking his talk and modernised administration by computerizing a number of Government Operations and took initiatives for the convenience of public. He made the State run professionally as an efficient organization rather than as a bureaucracy saddled with red-tapism.
Be it in IT, Bio-technology, tourism. Chandrababu's vision for the future includes making Andhra Pradesh another Japan. He launched initiatives which aim at achieving excellence in all walks of life and focus on community building through teamwork. Former US President Bill Clinton observed an amazing experiment in e-governance that has revolutionised the way the citizens interact with their state when Chandrababu was the chief minister and he was all praise for work.
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