The Great Loot of Andhra Pradesh...

Part -1

• The above banner headline reads: Rs. 45Cr + 3 1/2 years = Rs. 3,053.90 crores!
• The caricature is Y.S.Jagan Mohan Reddy, s/o late CM of Andhra Pradesh from Congress, Y.S.Rajasekhar Reddy.
• This headline was in the telugu newspaper, eenadu.
• This headline is not a recent one.
• And most importantly, this loot of Rs.3,000 crores is not the only loot that has been perpetuated on the people of Andhra Pradesh in the past 7 years. This is just a sample.

Let's briefly look into the math of the above headline before proceeding further to explain the growth of the YS empire. Raghuram Cements was bought over by a new company called Bharathi Cements. Bharathi is the name of Jagan Mohan Reddy's wife. The YS family gets about 4.5 crore shares alloted to them at Rs.10/- per share. Companies like India Cements, Dalmiya Cements suddenly bought premium shares for much higher amounts and invest about Rs.250 crores for a 31% share! The YS family owns 69% of the company with an investment of Rs. 45 crores. Others invested about Rs.250 crores with 31% share, into a company that hasn't even begun manufacturing! The article later goes on to explain how this 69% share holding rose in its value to about Rs. 3000/- crores in just 3 1/2 years.

The detailed math and financial transactions are way too complicated for my understanding. The route used by the companies of YS family is so circutous, it makes your mind go into a tizzy. Simple example. The company that invested 69% into Bharati Cements is Jagati Publications. Jagati Publications (named by combining Jagan's name and his wife Bharati's name) owns Sakshi newspaper. Shares were alloted to YS family in this company too, for Rs. 10/- !! Deloitte values this company for Rs.3,500 crore, and therefore the value of YS family shares jumps to thousands of crores!

Let's leave all the math jargon aside. Let's assume that all this is a propaganda by the opposition and a media that is against the Congress. Let's just go by facts present in the public domain (the charts presented below have been picked up from TDP's website, who in turn have picked it up from documents available in public domain).

Y.S Family in 2004.

YS Family ownership in 2005 (1 year after YSR became CM of AP)

YS Family ownership in 2006

YS Family ownership in 2007 (when Bharati cements also got added!)

Let's also for a moment assume that the above material presented at TDP's website is also bogus. Jagan, in his 2011 election affidavit said he has ownership in the following 11 companies!

• Sandur Power
• Saraswati Power
• Carmel Asia Holdings
• Bharathi Cement Corp
• Kealawn Technologies Pvt Ltd
• Marvel Infrastructure
• Classic Realty
• Silicon Builders
• Swasti Power Engineering Ltd

First post also mentions that Sandur power has 4 subsidiaries atleast:

• Classic Realty
• Harish Infrastructure
• Capstone Infra
• Silicon Builders

Is your mind in a tizzy now? Has it been blown away by the complications of companies, percentages, ownership, subsidiaries and the wealth discussed above? Here's more official information:

Jagan declared the value of his assets as Rs.365 crore in 2011. Another ~Rs47 crore in the name of his wife. He is the richest MP in the annals of Indian history, with no close competition in sight in the near future! Guess how much his declared earnings were in 2003? ~Rs.9 lakh!! In 2009 - it was Rs.77.40 crores. From a mere 10 lakhs in 2003 to tens of crores in 2009 to hundreds of crores in 2011 - this is one musical journey for Jagan Mohan Reddy and YSR's family!

Almost every company mentioned above received some largesse or the other from the government (both the centre and the state were ruled by the Congress during this time). Each of these investors have recieved some largesse (in terms of land, investments, loans, rules etc). Now, are you wondering how come no media highlighted this? Take a look at the snapshot below.

The above snapshot is a small collection of headlines from the popular telugu daily, eenadu. Eenadu, along with another newspaper Andhra Jyothy, has revealed many such corruption sagas by the YS family and the other members of the Congress government. Slowly, a momentum was built saying both these newspapers were partisan; never exposed corruption in TDP regime etc

When TDP and other opposition parties discussed the share holding details in animated debates in the Assembly - guess what YSR and his stooges replied? They asked Chandrababu Naidu why he was jealous if other companies were making money! The ruling party rubbished pretty much every allegation. YSR even appointed some judicial commissions with retired Judges heading them - ofcourse we know the result (almost none of them submitted any report)! Not satisfied with that, they went on to open a newspaper and a TV channel to counter the "opposition" propaganda!

Sakshi newspaper and TV had two goals in mind - glorify YSR and demonise Chandrababu/Eenadu. If eenadu stories had details about corruption by YS and family, Sakshi would immediately resort to stories of "corruption" by eenadu etc. As if corruption by one group justified corruption by the other! And now suddenly the debate in the state turned to the "media war". The debate was never about corruption anymore - just about how cunning these media people are blah blah.

Even by now, if you are not convinced that public money and power were not misused, here's a minor fact revealed by CAG. Governments are not supposed to place ads in new newspapers, unless they publish continously for six months. Guess for which newspaper this rule was broken?? Full page ads in Sakshi newspaper right from day one! That's your money down the drain there! Sakshi paper was established for government propaganda and on top of that - full page ads!

The above mentioned details are just of THE empire. We have not even discussed the mammoth corruption in various government schemes and programs, that went on unhindered. Jalayagnam, the pet project of YSR involves construction of "30 major and 18 medium irrigation projects at a cost of Rs. 46,000 crores to provides irrigation to an extent of 73 lakh acres ". From the official website (which incidentally still has a picture of YSR and not the current CM!), "Eight of these projects were to be completed before the kharif season of 2006". Till now, only 12 projects have been completed. Project costs were escalated, tender process was rigged - what not! Even Sonia Gandhi was forced to order an internal probe into this! It was even labelled as "Dhanayagnam" by the opposition! No news about that. Scams unearthed ranged from industries (which involved the current PCC Chief)to education department, and yet not a squeal from the "national" media.

I am sure you people must have heard about "Reddy Brothers" from Karnataka. I am sure you would have assumed by now, given the awesome coverage that they are the epitome of corruption in this country. You must have also heard that through their Obulapuram mining company, the Reddy brothers have manufactured an unprecedent loot of natural resources of this country. Quiz Question - in which state in Obulapuram located? Andhra Pradesh!

This same Obulapuram Mining company also owns "Brahmani Steels" which - hold your breath - reportedly made profits even before it started manufacturing any steel! 10,000 acres of land was alloted to it in Kadapa (Andhra Pradesh) after a cabinet decision by the Congress government in AP in 2007. We were also told that the plant will start manufacturing within 18 months (without any bank loan!) and will beat Vizag Steel Plant in no time (according to latest TOI report, the plant is nowhere close to manufacturing!). Amidst lot of criticism, a successful foundation laying ceremony was also held. I very vividly remember, YSR playing a Quiz master here and asking the Reddy brothers all the questions that the opposition was asking, and the Reddy brothers "refuted" them point by point. And therefore, amidst public, it was decided that this steel project is the awesomest idea ever.

The USP is always the same. Allot shares for yourself at the cheapest price possible. Lure investors to buy shares at a more higher price. Give these investors largesse in terms of land, concessions etc etc. And get away with all the loot.

What has been mentioned in this blog so far is not comprehensive - only because the loot is so large, it is impossible to cover everything in one go! A mining lease was issued to YSR's son-in-law Brother Anil Kumar, which was later cancelled by the centre, very conveniently in 2010. I am sure if we start digging into Brother Anil Kumar's business details.

Please remember, all this loot happened when Jagan was a member of Congress party and his father YSR was heading the Congress government in Andhra Pradesh. Please also remember that YSR was one of the favorite Chief Ministers of the high command led by Sonia Gandhi.

The reason I am mentioning the Congress party so many times is because there has been a concentrated campaign to try to convince people that this loot by the Congress party led by the father-son duo had nothing to do with the Congress party itself! And now, after Jagan Mohan Reddy has resigned from Congress, many leaders from Congress are openly accusing him of misusing power. Many are openly calling him as very corrupt. And when pointed out that all this corruption took place under the guidance of YSR, they went on to say, Jagan misused his father's powers!!

The Andhra Pradesh High Court directed the CBI to investigate these cases. Minor fact that media won't tell you - this case was filed by a Congress minister, Sankar Rao! (a second case was filed by TDP leader, Yerran Naidu). So now, the corruption accusations are no more a opposition and media conspiracy. Have you ever seen a near unanimity amongst all major political parties on such a contentious issue? Leaders of the same Congress party who enjoyed the spoils of power under YSR are saying there was massive corruption; PRP, the party whose main plank was to take on this corruption merged with the Congress because YS family is not in power anymore; TDP, Left, and BJP (the state unit) have been crying hoarse from a long time too!

The regional media, has been shouting from the rooftop of the loot being done in the name of business acumen. From about 6-7 years, they have been very vociferous of the corruption and robbery the YS family has been resorting. This "national" media was no where to be seen or heard. There was one obscure "Devil's advocate" interview by Karan Thapar in which YSR had only one answer - Go the court if you think it is wrong! Other than that, no "exclusives". No stories of the phenomenal growth of THE empire. Atleast, if they thought this was a media war - no story about that either!

The closest any newspaper came was this article in livemint. Just that article is enough to confuse us with the machinations used.

Anyways, Jagan owns two palaces. One in Hyderabad. It is a 74 room palace! The second is in Bangalore. Take a look below

Bangalore palace:

Hyderabad palace:

And what did B.S.Yedyyurappa do? Alloted some government land under CM's discretionary quota to his family members. Remember the outrage by the "national" media? I rest my case.

PS: I would welcome any fact based rebuttal. Please resist from labelling this article as Anti-jagan, anti-congress blah blah. We have crossed that line long back!

Part - 2

"This week, a series of media reports - including on NDTV - explored whether Jagan and Janardhana have ever formally shared business interests"

That amazing assertion has been picked up from an NDTV report, filed on September 8th,2011 will make you think some extensive research did go into "exploring" the best known open secret!

Let's briefly look at this "exploration" - Sakshi newspaper's registered address is also the registered address of two other firms, one of which has a stake in Obulapuram Mining Company owned by Gali Janardhana Reddy and the other is a iron ore trading company that invested money in Sakshi. This superb "exploration" was carried out by the media after a CBI enquiry revealed this known fact! Some snippets of this exploring report- "In June 2007, YSR was seen....at the inaguration of ... Brahmani steels". Seen? Yo NDTV - he actually inagurated it! One more - "NDTV visited the address ...". Let's leave it at there and revisit this point later in the article.

ohh, by the way, a mandatory reading before reading this piece is Part 1 , otherwise the context is not set correctly.

Bro. Anil Kumar

Can you possibly imagine the outrage on english TV media, if Yeddyurappa's father-in-law's son-in-law's nephew's sister's husband used hundred rupees of public money for a purely religious event?

Let's now get to the point :)

In 2008, suddenly we saw a spurt of banners in Hyderabad, through which we were introduced to Brother Anil Kumar.

(pic courtesy, rediff)

Many of us did not know who Bro. Anil Kumar was. Since it was around Christmas time, we thought that this was another evangelist organising a gathering. And then it was revealed that Bro. Anil Kumar is none other than the son-in-law of the Chief Minister, Y.S.Rajashekar Reddy! And now all that sudden publicity overdrive made lot of sense. The opposition parties began questioning the source of funds (not just the "communal" BJP but even "secular" TDP. so...) for Bro.Anil Kumar's little known evangelical organisation, Anil World Evangelism. Suddenly from nowhere, where is he getting the money to spend crores on publicity and is able to mobilise lakhs of people (even in other cities)? Was government machinery used for these purposes? Was undue influence used so as to favour the Chief Minister's son-in-law? How come a relatively unknown organisation, Anil World Organisation suddenly get so rich?

The Bayyaram Mining Lease

• Bayyaram is a mandal in Khammam district of Andhra Pradesh.
• The above mentioned organisation, Anil World Evangelism is registered in the same apartment complex as that of another company, Rakshana Steels.
• The Andhra Pradesh Mineral Development Corporation had entered into a joint venture agreement with - hold your breath - Rakshana Steels for mining iron ore in Khammam and Warangal districts in February 2009 when YSR was the chief minister.

Now that's an address NDTV never visited, despite there being a huge uproar in the state back in 2010! A random report was filed though. "It is alleged" blah blah.

You want to take a guess on how much land was given on lease - 1.37 lakh acres. Ofcourse, Rakhsana steels denied that Bro.Anil Kumar was holding any position in their company. Until the next day when regional newspapers published details of registered addresses of both companies in the same apartments! (unfortunately I am not able to find a snapshot of those reports. If only telugu newspapers maintained a proper archive section, life would be so much easier. Sigh!)

And so now we have the spectacle of 1.37 lakh acres of land being alloted for iron ore mining, to a company that is promoted by Bro.Anil Kumar (I won't even bother using the word "alleged" here!). Mark it in bold people - The Chief Minister's son-in-law is given a lease to mine iron ore over 1.37 lakh acres. Investigative media like the NDTV did not find the time to neither visit the address nor express outrage.

Spirited opposition attacks on the government in Assembly elicited this response from the govt. - Rakshana Steels will only transport the steel from the mining area. Actual mining will be done by the government only! And if you still insist that this is a opposition conspiracy, then you need to answer why this same Congress government at the centre cancelled the lease in August 2010 (after YSR's death and Jagan's revolt), that it only allowed in the first place?

MAYTAS Land deals

Remember Satyam? No no, am not trying to accuse YSR of the scam done by Ramalinga Raju! Ramalinga Raju's son owned MAYTAS infrastructure (reverse SATYAM and you get MAYTAS! This is how Raju created tens of bogus companies to carry out his scams - shuffle letters, rearrange them etc etc). MAYTAS was given infrastructure deals worth Rs.30,000 crore !! And they were given deals into projects that they have had no prior experience and are not some small building a mall or a road kind of projects. One project was to build a port! The other famous project, which eventually had to be scrapped and re-drawn again, was the Hyderabad metro! This article by a known opponent of the Metro rail project is very revealing as to how Maytas was getting good real estate for cheap. Out of the blue, MAYTAS was favoured. Ofcourse, after the scam broke out, when asked - YSR said that all deals have been given to consortiums so not a big problem if one of them fails!

DPEP scam

A curosry mention of this scam was made in part-1 but wanted to touch this briefly here. The person standing behind YSR in the below picture is an extremely well-known face to the people of AP.

His name is Sureedu. He was almost ALWAYS seen with YSR everywhere he goes. He had no official position till 2008. After objections from many quarters, YSR appointed him as one of his security officers and therefore his position became official! Most of us just thought he was just YSR's lucky charm or something like that.Until the DPEP scam broke out!

DPEP is the District Primary Education Program, run on funds that the central government gives to the states. By now, we are used to and have become immune to small scams in all departments and programs. When the scam first broke out, the mood was the same. A former teacher from Kadapa district, Sarasa Devi connived with an accountant Subramanyam, to open a fake bank accounts and eat money that was left over in DPEP funds. When the scam first came out, a fraud case for Rs. 7.40 crore was filed.

And guess whose name the accountant took in the investigations? He said that Sarasa Devi could run this show with the help of ..... Sureedu ! The amount maybe small, but the shock value was quite high. YSR promptly instituted a judicial commission that promptly said Sureedu is not guilty!

The EMAAR-APIIC scam

ok folks - this will be last scam to be discussed. I guess we are really reaching a break point here! There are two primary reasons for mentioning this scam.

• This scam was unearthed by a serving Congress minister in the state, D.L.Ravindra Reddy. He says that this scam can easily be estimated at Rs.10,000/- crore.
• The timing of the government raids on properties concerning this deal. Let's get into the details.

Those of us who watch TV news regularly in AP are very familiar with this man, Ambati Rambabu

Ambati Rambabu, along with a few others, were the most vociferous spokespersons of Congress party, on TV. To be frank, Rambabu is a good orator and a good argumentative guy. His rhetoric though got boring after a while. He was steadfast in supporting YSR and the congress party in all TV debates. You could see the loyalty and passion in his arguments. (A shameless plug here :) - Ambati Rambabu was on his rhetorical drive on drought situation in AP, in one of the TV debates. I could call in to the debate, and asked him only one Q - Can you list out the specific things the govt did to control this drought - guess the answer. He said, nothing specific has been done so far! This was on channel TV5 some 2 years back!).

Anyways, getting back to the point. After YSR's death, amongst all those vociferous spokespersons of the Congress party, only Rambabu voiced support for Jagan. Right from day 1, Rambabu has been scathing in his criticism of the Rosiah govt, Sonia Gandhi and high in his praise of Jagan. You should see the debates to believe his high energy levels. So now officially Rambabu is against the congress govt and is a Jagan loyalist.

And hence the witch hunt begins! Rambabu was the chairman of AP Industrial Infrastructure Coporation (APIIC). APIIC is the organisation that gives permissions for various SEZs and IT campuses to come up in the state (Now you get the importance of this position? :D). APIIC entered into a deal with EMAAR in 2002 (yeah, when TDP was in power!) to construct a township project near Hyderabad. 74% to EMAAR, 26% to APIIC. After Congress came into power, this deal was diluted in such a way that APIIC will get about 6.5%. Plus, apparently more than half the villas/plots in this township have been officially sold at Rs.5000 per sq yard, but unofficially at Rs. 45,000 per sq yard! The calculation was done by the Congress minister himself, and therefore we now had the spectacle of the Rosaih government conducting raids on establishments that entered into a deal with YSR government! Indian Express explores if APIIC is robbed left, right and centre here. Wonder why NDTV never "explored" this?

The above cited project is just example. There have been a deluge of reports in the media about more such "deals" by APIIC, only after Rambabu was kicked out from the Congress.

Everyone is clean as long as they are in Congress and hail the High Command. The minute you stop doing either of them - you become corrupt and raids happen on your establishments. So the Congress High Command was sleeping all these years?

Still if you are keen, happy cursory reading on the Outer ring road scam, temple land scam,Jalayagnam scams (also mentioned in part-1 in some detail), Nadergul land scam . Where there is land, there is a scam!

And please note again - ministers of Congress party are themselves filing cases against corruption done when Congress party was in power; office bearers of Congress party are accusing the son of their former CM of mammoth corruption!

I am not mentioning the scams that happen below the level of a minister. Those scams, though can be avoided, cannot be blamed on the Chief Minister directly. The above mentioned scams (and the ones in part-1) are mostly at the level of the Chief Minister (along with his family). And that's exactly what differentiates all this loot (by both the central and state government leaders) from all other previous corruption cases - these happened with the direct involvement and knowledge of the highest decision making authorities.

Part 3

The loot of Andhra Pradesh, Part-1 and Part-2 discussed in detail how much corruption seeped into the system under the Congress CM, YSR and his family. Despite all the outrage and open loot, YSR won back the elections in 2009. It is but natural to be asking and thinking how this happened if all that has been discussed is true. In my opinion, there are four main factors (in no particular order) that helped YSR win back the election in 2009.

1. The massive psychological and perceptional campaign

In 2009, TDP alliance won 34.54% share of the vote as opposed to the 36.53% of the Congress.There is just about a 2% difference in the vote share between these parties and therefore all the small and big perceptional and psychological points YSR scored over Naidu mattered a great deal. In my opinion, YSR very adeptly played the psychological game to the hilt. He turned the constant coverage of his corruption as a boon. He was successful in stressing that this is all a propaganda; that the media is all negative; that Naidu did more corruption; and finally opened a newspaper for himself. While stressing on this "negativity", YSR also roped in multiple other factors to play with the sentiments of people. Some examples:

• Rains during his tenure

It didn't rain for the last three years of Chandrababu Naidu's tenure. From the second year of YSR's tenure till his 5th year, it rained bountifully every year without fail. He converted this natural occurence into his credit. He and the Congress party lost no opportunity to shout at the top of their voice - Rains are falling only because YSR is the CM. It never rained when Naidu was CM, it always rained when YSR was CM. Believe it or not, this created a huge sentimental impact of many people (including the non-agricultural folks!). After the first phase of elections in AP, some media started speculating that Naidu is going to come back to power. Since the elections were in May, it was very hot. At about that time, the Met department predicted a delayed monsoon. YSR immediately caught on to that fact and used it in his second phase of campaign - the mere speculation of Naidu's returning back to power is causing a delay in monsoon!

• The trust and credibility factor

Another overdosed campaign was that YSR was the most credible and trustworthy person and leader ever to be born! He never took action against any wrong doer if he/she was close to him. The scale of the wrong doing never mattered to him - if he liked the person, he would not touch them at all. Despite it's huge negative impact on the polity, a big positive spin was given to saying that YSR never betrays those who trust him! Naidu is cunning, but YSR is friendly. YSR has a best friend, Naidu doesn't have a best friend also. Naidu doesn't believe in anyone. YSR forgives even those who betray him! This perception was very strong in some well educated and neutral voters too.

• State government employees

Many state government employees were not happy with Naidu's style of functioning. He was strict, demanded performance and results from them, and was ruthless in admonishing them in public. He made many surprise visits to offices and didn't think twice before suspending employees. It is said that they too played a vital role in his defeat in 2004. YSR in contrast gave them a free hand. Employees were more content under YSR and hence he could get their support easily.

• Always has a smile (rather heartily laughing face)

Yet another psychological point - YSR always has a smiling face. Naidu never smiles! Every small thing counts when you won just by 2%!

• Counter to the Corruption

YSR's only point when pointed out to the corruption under his rule - Naidu was much more corrupt. Any argument on corruption always ended up with rhetoric of Naidu's corruption.

• Taking on the well-established media

Two major newspapers, eenadu and andhra jyothy, were going bonkers on his government. He took them head-on, criticized them day-in and day-out, and finally opened his own newspaper and TV channel! So now we had people discussing the "war" between the media, and not the corruption charges anymore.

• Welfare programs

His welfare programs achieved two things. One obviously is that they actually benefited sizeable number of people. The second one is that the perception of him being a poor man's messiah got imprinted into the minds of neutral voters. For example, a software engineer who benefited from Naidu's IT policy and is now placed in a good job now started to think - "ohh yeah, Naidu never did anything for the poor. YSR is doing so much, even though he is corrupt." Naidu lost quite a chunk of those votes too - simply because of this perception of the well-settled class of people thinking YSR is better than Naidu.

2. The welfare (free for all) programs

I will not be discussing the drawbacks/corruption/irregularities in these schemes here. Merely mention what they are and how they intend to benefit.

• Free power

The backdrop of the 2004 elections was that the TDP rule failed to take care of the farmer's needs. YSR's main plank was that he will alleviate the farmer out of his misery. He will alleviate the poor people out of their misery. And midst this backdrop he won the election in 2004. The first file he signed was on "free power to the farmers". And since absolute free power is near impossible, slowly that has been diluted to exclude rich farmers etc. The remaning free power was given for seven hours a day, intermittently. Even if it was not given for seven hours, what actually did matter was that it was free. To the farmer for whom every ten rupees counts, this was something he never forgot.

• Health insurance and Ambulance service

This was another huge hit amongst the poor, rural and lower middle class segment of Andhra Pradesh. Essentially, if you are white ration card holder, you are entitled to health care in most private hospital for ailments that are out of your reach. So for example, you need to be operated upon for a major operation which will cost you about 2 lakhs. Under ordinary circumstances you cannot afford it, but with this scheme you can get the operation done and the government will reimburse all the costs! So to all those people who couldn't get ailments cured at government hospitals, this became a boon. Suddenly, you see people who otherwise could not have afforded this health care, now happy and content. People I know have been so happy with the government for this scheme.

YSR also popularised the Emergency Ambulance service. Even in rural areas, you had ambulances reaching you within 15 minutes (with a picture of Rajiv Gandhi on it).

• Fee reimbursement

YSR announces that the government will reimburse the full education fees (under-graduate, graduate, PG courses) of all BC students (eligbility criteria was very low too)! Colleges were hit because of late payments from the government, but students and their families were thrilled that their education costs are now free - and that's what mattered here!

• Rs.2/Kg rice

This was the pet scheme of NTR in both his first tenure and his subsequent tenure in 1994. YSR, out of the blue again, announced that he will give rice at Rs.2/kg at ration shops!

• Pavala vaddi (loan @ 25p) for Self Help Groups

He introduced loan at just 3% for Self Help Groups in the state. This encouraged small scale businesses to flourish well. And get their votes too.

• Absorbing the Rs.50/- increase on LPG cylinder

When the central government hiked the LPG rate by Rs.50/- in 2007, YSR decided that the state government will absorb the cost

• The perception about Jalayagnam

This was another huge perception campaign launched. It was made to look like Jalayagnam project was already complete and the state is now free of any irrigational problems. Only 12 out of the planned 48 have been completed so far. But YSR made sure inagurations of projects happened at a regular pace. So in case even if people forgot, they would suddenly be reminded of this project and think YSR is like the water god of AP!

Bad economics, one would argue? True no doubt. It is difficult for any free for all scheme to sustain in the long term. So imagine the troubles to maintain so many free-for-all schemes. The Finance minister himself would say that these schemes are a burden. Unless you have a steady revenue generating model, you cannot sustain these freebies. And where did revenue come from - real estate and higher taxes! But then there is only so much real estate one can sell. You and I can sit in the coziness of our offices/home and have the luxury of talking about "long-term" impact blah blah. Try telling a daily wage labourer or to that massive population that depends on nature to earn well, that the concessions he/she is getting will be disastrous for the economy in the "long-term". He will care a scoot. What mattered to them is that their present is good, with a promise of a similar future from a man whom they believed to be "credible".

3. Split in the opposition vote.

Elections are also about the complex electoral math. Just to avoid a split in the opposition vote, the entire opposition in the state entered into an alliance. TDP, TRS, CPI and CPI(M) all formed a "Maha kutami". But then Chiranjeevi played the spoilsport. Remember the statistics - TDP alliance gets 34.54%. Congress gets 36.53%. Chiranjeevi got 17% and Jayaprakash Narayan's Lok Satta got 1%. So you have a full block of 18% that would have gone either way (most of it into the opposition's vote). And this electoral math guided YSR and the Congress party to a slender majority (156/294) in the Assembly elections of 2009.

4. The money from the loot

And ofcourse the massive money power unleashed helped capture the votes of the vulnerable sections. It would be naive to assume that money played no role at all in those elections. It did, and it contributed to the victory too. Plus it is with this loot money that a newspaper and a channel were set-up. This loot money was used for counter attacking the opposition, and this loot money was used to distributing (either directly or indirectly) during the elections to vulnerable sections.

Conclusion

Also, those who say Naidu did nothing for the state are just fooling themselves. Even if we believe that the development of IT is his *only* achievement - take a look around at the number of steady jobs created not just in urban but even for people from other areas, the number of secondary sectors that flourished (like security, cab, catering - each in turn providing employment), and the real estate bump through which these politicians made so much money! To discount such a phenomenal contribution to the growth of the economy is naive. His success in fostering the Self-help groups (they succeeded only in AP), his stress on various initiatives like rain-water harvesting (neeru-meeru), people's participation in welfare programs through "Janmabhoomi" (you know, all his speeches used to end with Jai Hind Jai Janmabhoomi - liked that a lot :) ), clean environment etc - did impact a sizeable population too. Contrary to popular perception, TDP alone won 1crore 34 lakh votes in 2004 to Congress's 1crore 37lakh. Just 3 lakh votes between these two parties. The major loss for TDP was from it's alliance with the BJP (between TDP+ and Cong+, there was ~20 lakh vote difference!).

Anyways, A combination of the above four factors helped him win, despite the massive loot. His corruption did help the opposition, but like mentioned above the slender lead of 2% of votes (about 10 lakh votes) made all the difference. Nevertheless, the dire financial straits that the state is in, is testimony to his lack of vision. Leave all economics aside - think just about this - you have ensured that many people are dependent on you for their expenses, without really increasing their income levels and now you say - you know what, sorry I can't cover these expenses. live with it. The misery you cause because of that false hope is unbearable and that is what some people have already begun to experience. That's the sad reality too.

And with this, ends the series on YSR :) Sorry for bombarding you with these long posts!