NAIDU 4.0

Emotions pretty often get the better of Andhra Pradesh's new chief minister Chandrababu Naidu. So it was on June 12, when just before mid-day, and shortly after state governor Syed Abdul Nazeer administered the oath of office to him, Naidu presented Prime Minister Narendra Modi with a bouquet and a tight hug.

- Amarnath K. Menon

That bonhomie at the ceremony, at the Kesarapalli Information Technology Park near Gannavaram airport, held before legions of enthusiastic supporters of Naidu's Telugu Desam Party, actor Pawan Kalyan's Jana Sena Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party, signalled the launch of the new coalition government, the state's very first.

Naidu carried that spirit into his 24-member ministry as well, which boasts three ministers, including deputy CM Kalyan, from the JSP, and one from the BJP. Ten of these, including Kalyan and Naidu's son Nara Lokesh, No. 3 in the hierarchy, are firsttime MLAs. Eight others, though familiar with electoral success, have debuted as ministers. Lokesh picked a majority of them, heeding region, gender and caste compulsions: three women, eight backwards, two Dalits and one Adivasi. Naidu went with his choices. Of the other castes, four each of the Kapu and Naidu's Kamma cohort, three Reddys and a Vysya come in. Seniors and heavyweights elected in the TDP's landslide triumph, which Naidu admits was unexpected, have been kept out. One berth stays vacant: Naidu wanted to accommodate two of the BJP's eight legislators, the party gave him only one name. The TDP has 135 and the JSP 21 MLAs, making for a truly grand total of 164 in the 175-seat assembly.