A City of Two Moons

Yes… Now Hyderabad has two moons, not because of an unusual cosmic magic, but due to an unusual political magic. Chandrababu Naidu and Chandrasekar Rao have successfully and overwhelmingly captured the majority of the EVM buttons. Now they are the Chief Ministers of the two bifurcated states— Andhra Pradesh and Telengana respectively. So far so good, but because of the common capital status given to Hyderabad, this historic city got the unique distinction of hosting two chief ministers at a time. It is interesting that the common capital is with two chief ministers whose names start with a common noun, CHANDRA. As it is well known that CHANDRA means MOON in telugu, the poetic expression of A CITY OF TWO MOONS is a spontaneous smart citizen’s imagination.

Though their ideologies and agendas are different,Chandrababu and Chandrasekar are having very similar and high qualities of leadership.They are very clear about their goals, they are hard working, gutty, visionaries,proactive, dreamers, optimistic, pro active and inspiring leaders.They witnessed many political ups and downs.They are brave soldiers who braved all political odds and emerged as strong leaders. Now let us travel through their success journey…

Relentless Fighter…

Born on April 20, 1950, in Naravari Palle village of Chittoor district, Naidu joined the Indian National Congress (Congress Party), and in 1975–77, during the period of emergency rule imposed by the then prime minister Indira Gandhi, he served as the local youth president of the party. He subsequently discontinued his studies to pursue a career in politics. Naidu became a confidant of Sanjay Gandhi. Later he joined TDP floated by his father in law NTR. Naidu lost his bid for re-election to the assembly in 1983 in the TDP sweep of the state elections that year, and joined the new party. Naidu soon gained the confidence of NTR, especially following his role in helping thwart a Congress Party attempt to oust NTR from his post as chief minister in 1984. Naidu became general secretary of the TDP in 1985 and was instrumental in building up an effective party organization. Although he did not hold a portfolio in NTR’s government when it was in power (1983–89), he came to wield considerable clout within the party. When the TDP was out of power (1989–94), he served as party coordinator,skillfully handling its opposition role in the state assembly. His work during that phase was a key factor in the subsequent success of the TDP in the state elections of 1994.In August 1995 he staged a successful intraparty coup against his father-in-law to counter the rising influence of Lakshmi Parvathi (or Parvati),NTR’s second wife. Later that year he was unanimously elected leader of the TDP and simultaneously took over NTR to become the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. He continued to strengthen the party, and in the 1996 Lok sabha (lower chamber of the Indian parliament) elections the TDP won a total of 16 seats. In the September– October 1999 Lok Sabha elections, the TDP did even better, gaining 29 seats solidifying Naidu’s reputation as a leader of significance. He lent his party’s support to (without joining) the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance coalition that governed the country between 1999 and 2004. After sitting 10 years in opposition now in 2014 Chandrababu again captured the power to rule the Andhra Pradesh state, but reduced to 13 disricts.

With a firm conviction that technology should be used in the service of the common man, Naidu laid great emphasis on the use of modern information technology.Thus, he was instrumental in making Hyderabad one of the IT hubs in India.

Father of Telengana…

KCR, who is known as the ‘Father of Telangana’, has started his career with the youth Congress party in Medak district, controlled by Sanjay Gandhi in the 1970s. As he himself claims, he and a few others stood by Indira Gandhi even after her defeat in the 1977 Lok Sabha polls. 16 years after he entered electoral politics with a loss first, and then never to lose an election again, he joined NTR’s new Telugu Desam Party in 1984. He was one of the early members of the TDP, in fact senior to Naidu— a fact that he never fails to point out. On 27 April 2001, Rao resigned as Deputy Speaker and TDP MLA. He claimed that the politicians of the region were being suppressed and believed that separatism is the only solution. In April 2001, he formed the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) to campaign for his separatist agenda. Though several leaders, including veteran M Channa Reddy, had tried to champion the cause of separate statehood for the Andhra region, it is KCR who started alone to fight for it and finished with success. After a long fight of 14 years the struggle finally bore fruit for Rao, with the formation of Telangana. Now KCR has to manage problems that come with power. But with statehood, KCR has ensured that the title of “the father of Telangana” is his forever.The father of Telengana also becomes the Chief Minister. With a master’s in Telugu and a poet himself, he named his daughter as ‘Kavitha’. He is a communicator par excellence in Telangana slang. Now that the dream is fulfilled and four crore telengana people are in the mood to enjoy self rule, KCR is keen to implement the promises he had made.