With Lok Sabha elections 2019 around the corner, 68-year-old Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu, who is simultaneously fighting for 25 Lok Sabha and the 175 Assembly seats, is certain his political innings are nowhere near over.
While asking this reporter to come and visit Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh five years later, he promises development and growth. When assured there will be a ground follow-up in five years, he clarifies, “In the next 5 years and even in 10 years, you are sure to meet me here.”
In this interview with The Quint, Naidu appears calm, self-assured and critical of the BJP, a party he helped form government in the Centre in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
Naidu predicts he will win 150+ seats of 175 in Andhra Pradesh Assembly and at least 23 of 25 in the Lok Sabha seats. Andhra votes on 11 April and election 2019 results are out on 23 May.
What is very clear with the ‘mahagathbandhan’ is that political leaders are very angry with Modi – but how are you so sure that this anger will change? There is no Modi wave, we all know, sir, but...
You tell me one thing – today, in five years’ time, what has Narendra Modi done to the people? What is the benefit that people have got? Are people fools? No. They know how to respond, how to react at the appropriate time.
KCR (Telangana CM) and Reddy have allied, I mean, KCR has announced support for him. Do you think this will work in your favour or work against you?
It will work for me. It is simple logic. He refused so many benefits for us. Today, he abused the Andhra people, KCR. He used filthy language – ‘You’re all dogs. You’ve come to Hyderabad. You’ve looted Hyderabad. You are not cultured. You get out or we will throw you out of this place’.
About Pawan Kalyan (leader of newly-formed Jana Sena Party), do you think he will cut the vote for you and how much of it will impact you? Because in the previous election, he did come and campaign for you but this year, he has formed his own party and is not forming an alliance.
Pawan Kalyan is there, yes, he will split some votes.
In the press conference held right before this (interview), you referred to Pawan Kalyan as ‘just an actor’ but aren’t their various other actors who have started their career [in politics]? NTR too was an actor when he started out in his career, sir. So that doesn’t mean he is just an actor, right?
No, only NTR is different. Amitabh Bachchan, what happened (to his political career)? What I am saying is, he has a right to contest, we are not denying that. But at the same time, he cannot hurt us or affect our chances.
Your son is entering politics this time. He is contesting from the Mangalgiri segment. What would you say to people who accuse you of nepotism?
From the beginning I asked them, I gave them a choice – ‘Do you want to have a comfortable life? You can do business. You can earn money’. Because Stanford graduates, you know very well... So, I asked them and they discussed amongst themselves. Finally, they decided to do service through politics.
Sir, you’ve started using this app called the Seva Mitra app. One of the important things that is recorded in this app is caste data and where you are inclined to vote. We have heard of how there have been various requests under Form 7 to delete voter lists under the Election Commission from Andhra Pradesh. Do you think the information of your app could have been grossly misused?
No, it was not misused, they wanted to misuse. Jagan Mohan Reddy decided to misuse the date through Form 7. Reddy is a notorious criminal, he went to Delhi and complained to the EC that we are deleting votes. He deleted 9 lakh votes immediately (and) we got the information through our Seva Mitra (app) and then we complained. Then we stopped that episode.
How are you certain of a re-election, sir?
You asked me one question – what have I done? ‘Why are you so confident?’ I am so confident. I have taken welfare to the saturation point. I have done extremely well. Even then, my Opposition is criticising me, but people are responding positively.
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