Amaravati, Jun 12 (PTI) Three years ago, storming out of the state assembly in anger, Chandrababu vowed to return only as chief minister. True to his word, he has now ascended to the position and is poised to enter the House.
Andhra Pradesh Governor Abdul Nazeer on Wednesday administered the oath of office to the 74-year-old Naidu, marking his fourth term as chief minister, after the Telugu Desam Party-led NDA swept the assembly polls, bagging 164 out of the total 175 assembly seats.
TDP alone secured 135 seats while its partners Janasena and BJP won 21 and eight seats respectively, relegating the former chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy-led YSR Congress Party to just 11 seats.
After facing a humiliating defeat in the 2019 assembly elections, Naidu tirelessly worked to maintain relevance in both state and central politics, without giving up.
In the outgoing house, TDP has 23 members.
The TDP also put up a good show in the Lok Sabha polls, winning 16 of the total 25 seats in the state, with allies BJP and Janasena Party securing three and two constituencies respectively.
Naidu has thus emerged as one of the kingmakers, with TDP being the second largest party in the ruling NDA alliance behind the BJP in the 543-member Lok Sabha.
The BJP, which fell short of the 272 majority in the Lok Sabha, has therefore depended on the TDP and Janata Dal (United) to form a government.
This is the latest turn of fortune for the veteran politician who is credited with transforming Hyderabad, the capital of undivided Andhra Pradesh, into a technology and computer software hub.
Born on April 20, 1950, at Naravaripalli in the undivided Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh, Nara Chandrababu Naidu started his more-than-four-decade-long political career in student politics at Sri Venkateswara University in Tirupati.
Following that solid foundation, Naidu joined the Congress party and went on to become a cabinet minister. However, he later jumped ship to the TDP, founded by his late father-in-law and legendary actor N T Rama Rao.
Naidu first became the chief minister in 1995 and went on to have two terms as CM. His first two terms as chief minister were at the helm of united Andhra Pradesh, beginning in 1995 and ending in 2004, nine years at a stretch, while the third term came post bifurcation of the state.
Telangana was carved out of Andhra Pradesh 10 years ago.
During the late 90s, Naidu played a key role in forming the first NDA government at the Centre, which was led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, with his party TDP supporting it from outside.
In 2014, Naidu emerged as the first chief minister of the residuary state of Andhra Pradesh and served it until 2019.
In his third term as CM, he proposed Amaravati to be the capital city of the state, but losing power in the next term left the capital city project, which he started, unfinished.
In 2019, he suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of a much younger Jagan Mohan Reddy of the YSR Congress Party, who also dealt a debilitating blow to the Amaravati project.
In 2021, protesting some comments made against his family members in the assembly, Naidu had walked out of the assembly and said he would come back only as the state's chief minister again.
But there was more bad news in store for him, when in 2023 he was arrested under the Skill Development Corporation Scam case by the YSRCP government -- the lowest point in his political career.
After the pre-dawn arrest on September 9, Naidu spent nearly two months in the Rajamahendravaram central jail.
However, an interim bail on October 31, which was made absolute on November 20, set Naidu free to prepare for the 2024 polls, enabling him to join the BJP-led NDA alliance along with the Janasena.
He has now had the last laugh over his opponents and critics, with the spectacular performance of the TDP both in the assembly as well as Lok Sabha elections.