| A look at the Chief Minister’s report card shows it to be a mixed bag |
Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy HYDERABAD: Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy completed five years in office as Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday.
Three other leaders – N. Chandrababu Naidu, N. T. Rama Rao and Kasu Brahmananda Reddy -- enjoyed longer tenures than Dr. Rajasekhara Reddy but none of them served a full five-year term. In the case of the Telugu Desam leaders, they opted for elections before the Assembly completed its term, while Mr. Brahmananda Reddy had to step down in September 1971 in the wake of the separatist agitation in Telangana.
It was on May 14, 2004, that Dr. Rajasekhara Reddy was sworn in Chief Minister at the Lal Bahadur stadium after he led the Congress-TRS-Left alliance to a landslide victory against the ruling Telugu Desam Party, winning 226 Assembly seats. In a symbolic gesture, he signed the first file on the dais itself, ordering supply of free power to the farmers. From the same platform, he promised to initiate a dialogue with the naxalites and to provide a clean, transparent and honest government. Five years down the line, a look at Dr. Reddy’s report card would show it as a mixed bag. There were several lows as he courted numerous controversies and some highs, especially on the fronts of irrigation, agriculture and economic growth rate.
He started his innings by taking on a section of the media and later gave a handle for criticism on a number of issues like favouring his friends and relatives in the Outer Ring Road project, awarding a mining contract at Obulapuram in Anantapur district to his friend G. Janardhan Reddy, huge cost escalation in the Yellampalli project, the aborted Volkswagen car factory and forcible acquisition of land for Special Economic Zones (SEZs).
Surrender of landThe sources of investments in the newspaper and television channel launched by his son Y. S. Jaganmohan Reddy attracted widespread criticism. Dr. Reddy was forced to surrender assignment lands held by his family following a public uproar when he passed a law to acquire such lands held by the rich and the influential.On the plus side, the Chief Minister could take credit for spending nearly Rs. 1.50 lakh crore on irrigation to create an additional ayacut of over one crore acres and for the health insurance scheme Arogyasri. Agriculture also thrived and the State is poised for a record foodgrain production this year. While the country as a whole recorded a negative growth rate in agriculture, the State registered a positive growth and contributed significantly to the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) which rose to 9.4 per cent at one stage. In spite of instances of hamhandedness in running the administration, the State did surprisingly well on the economic front by never availing of overdraft from the Centre.
Re-alignmentDr. Reddy’s style of functioning, however, left the TRS and the Communist parties unhappy and they switched sides to the Telugu Desam Party. The price the Congress will pay for this re-alignment and also the emergence of the Praja Rajyam will be known when the election results are out on May 16.
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