Today, AP Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu is celebrating his four years as Chief Minister. When he took oath on this day in 2014, there were many hopes on him as he has the experience in holding the same office. He had also made several promises to the people in the elections, though the elections were held in the undivided State and Assemblies and governments were formed in the divided States.

When the bifurcation became a reality, majority people, particularly the youth, found Chandrababu Naidu as the better option. His electoral promises too were found to be lucrative for the State which was bifurcated without much to enjoy or feel comfortable. There was no capital and there was no revenue when compared with the Telangana. The highest revenue generating Hyderabad had gone to Telangana and the cities like Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam, which were running on external borrowings by the urban local bodies were left for Andhra Pradesh.

It was in this difficult situation and adverse realities, including the revenue deficit, people have pinned several hopes on Chandrababu Naidu’s leadership and vision. Four years later, there is nothing much to claim except the 33,000 acres of fertile and multi-crop lands destroyed in the name of capital, around which the administration lived for four years. The other claim for Chandrababu Naidu is the Polavaram project which was the responsibility of the Central government after bifurcation. But, Naidu had spent most of his money and time on this project, leaving others.

There is nothing that could be attributed to his credit given his experience. The much-talked about investment summits have not brought the money that matches even the expenditure incurred on them. There are no foreign investments that could fill Chandrababu Naidu’s foreign tours. What remains today as his contribution for the State in the four years is the five single floor buildings that house the secretariat at Velagapudi and partially completed six lane roads in the capital region.

There is a whopping Rs 2.25 lakh crore debt for the State in the last four years, a major portion of which had gone towards the foreign tours and foreign consultants. In four years, the government could not finalise the designs for the Assembly, Secretariat, Raj Bhavan and High Court. Whatever the works done in the last four years, such as cement roads, houses, toilets etc, are done with the Central government funds.

The farmers and self-help group women are not happy with the loan waiver promise as the loans were not waived in total as he promised at the time of elections. The farmers and the women have become bank defaulters and are not getting fresh loans. The unemployed youth neither got jobs nor the stipend as was promised. He had promised reservations for several castes and change of categories for some other castes. Nothing had been made a reality and the Kapus are disappointed and disgusted on this account.

The State government is borrowing heavily towards monthly maintenance and to meet the expenses of Chief Minister’s travel, both domestic and international and his publicity campaign. There are more than a dozen consultants helping Chandrababu Naidu during the last four years on various issues and there is nothing done for the State in return to the consultancy fee paid to them.