The people of Andhra Pradesh have given a historic mandate to the Telugu Desam Party led by N. Chandrababu Naidu and its alliance partners – Pawan Kalyan-led Jana Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party, restricting the YSR Congress Party headed by Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy to just 11 seats.
Naidu is expected to focus on implementing his pre-election promises, as well as bringing the development of the state back on track.
People expect him to be modest, cut down on all futile expenditures in the wake of the state's crippled finances, and concentrate on his work rather than publicity.
Of course, publicity is necessary to communicate government programs to the people, but there is a limit. If he does good work, publicity will come naturally, and people will keep him in their hearts.
But old habits die hard. The TDP leaders and activists have started playing all sorts of tricks to get into Naidu's good books.
On Monday, when the chief minister launched the pension distribution scheme, these TDP leaders resorted to a “milk bath” of Naidu’s portraits in different parts of the state to express gratitude to him.
For example, at Venkateshwarapuram in Nellore town, state minister for municipal administration P. Narayana and MLA Kotamreddy Sridhar Reddy, along with party leaders, performed “ksheerabhisekham” (milk bath) for Naidu’s cut-out through beneficiaries of the pension scheme.
The TDP chief should not encourage such acts of sycophancy within the party or outside, as this attitude contributed to the downfall of the Jagan regime.
Party leaders should understand that the beneficiaries of welfare schemes will not remain loyal to the party just because the pension amount has been enhanced.
Jagan also had a similar impression and was carried away by the praises of sycophants. Ultimately, the beneficiaries did not show any gratitude and voted him out of power.
Therefore, Naidu should avoid such milk bath culture, as it would only lead to a negative perception among the people. He should proceed with his tasks with utmost modesty.