HYDERABAD: “This mandate comes with tremendous responsibility,” YSRC chief Jagan Mohan Reddy said at a press conference at his residence in Tadipalli. “People saw the good governance of my father. I will repeat history... and rule in such a way that the country will look up to us. Many are asking me on what file will I sign first. I have seen first-hand people’s problems. I have heard them and will stand by them. We will implement all Navaratnas (promises made to the people),” he asserted.
Jagan, who won from Pulivendula by a margin of 90,110 votes, will take oath of office on May 30 in Vijayawada. The YSR Congress Legislature Party will meet Saturday to formally elect him as the leader. In contrast to the celebrations at the YSRC chief’s residence, the scene at TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu’s house in Undavalli was predictably sombre.
Naidu faxed his resignation to Governor ESL Narasimhan in the evening and in a brief press statement congratulated Jagan, Prime Minister Modi and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. Without taking questions, he said he would review the results and let people know his future course of action. The TDP chief appeared shocked. After all, 17 of his ministers, including his son Nara Lokesh, lost. Lokesh, who made his electoral debut this election in Mangalagiri, lost by 5,300 votes to YSRC’s Alla Ramakrishna Reddy. Naidu himself trailed at one point in Kuppam but rallied to win by 30,722 votes down from 47,121 in 2014.
The challenge for 69-year-old Naidu, the longest serving chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, would be to keep his flock together. The next five years could pose an existential crisis for the TDP with Jagan having vowed to constitute a special investigation team to look into alleged corruption under the Naidu dispensation. For Jagan, the challenge would be different. Naidu’s profligacy has ensured an almost empty treasury.