Chandrababu Naidu takes oath as Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister; Pawan Kalyan and Nara Lokesh take oath as ministers

Telugu Desam Party chief Nara Chandrababu Naidu on Wednesday took oath as the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh after winning the As sembly elections by a landslide. Naidu was sworn-in by Governor Abdul Nazeer.

Naidu is the first Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh to win a fourth term, having served as the Chief Minister of united Andhra Pradesh twice in the 2000s. With today's oath, he overtook father-in-law and party founder Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao who served as Chief Minister thrice.

Present at the swearing-in were Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP President JP Nadda, and Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, among other NDA allies.

Naidu contested the Andhra Pradesh Assembly elections as the leader of the NDA, allied with actor-politician Pawan Kalyan's Janasena and the Bharatiya Janata Party, led by Daggubati Purandeswari in the state.

The NDA won 164 of the 175 seats in the Andhra Assembly, routing the incumbent YSRCP, which won just 11 seats. Of the 164, Naidu's TDP won 144, with the Janasena picking up 21 seats and the BJP winning eight seats, up from zero seats five years ago.

Also present at the swearing-in were cinema superstars Rajinikanth and Chiranjeevi - elder brother of Janasena boss Kalyan - as well as former Chief Justice of India N V Ramana, former Vice President Venkaiah Naidu among other political bigwigs from the state and the national leadership of the BJP.

Chandrababu Naidu's next challenge

Now, the TDP leader's challenges are of a fiscal nature, with the state seeing itself in dire financial straits after five years of the Jagan Mohan Reddy-led YSRCP government. In a recent speech before swearing in of the NDA government at the Centre, Naidu said, "Balancing regional aspirations and national interest must run parallelly, ensuring holistic development across all strata of society." It was interpreted by many as an articulation of his demand for central assistance for the state.

The new Chief Minister needs over ₹4,500 crore to disburse social pensions to about 65 lakh beneficiaries by July 1. As part of his "Super Six" poll promises, Naidu vowed to hike monthly pension to ₹4,000 from the existing ₹3,000 along with a backlog of ₹3,000 from July. All together it would cost the exchequer ₹4,500 crore in July, besides salaries to employees and pensioners which is pegged at another ₹6,000 crore. The state needs ₹2,600 crore every month to meet the social pension alone.

All in all, the new government will have to mop up over ₹10,000 crore to fulfill the financial requirements for July, a retired senior bureaucrat told PTI, earlier this month.

Read more: Pawan Kalyan and Janasena's perfect performance key for the NDA

Super Six(er)?

The TDP and Naidu, during their campaign made six poll promises, including ₹15,000 per annum for every school-going child, three free cooking gas cylinders to every household per year, free bus travel for women, ₹20,000 annual financial assistance to every farmer, and the final installment on mega DCCCs (District Central Cooperative Banks).

Fiscal math

According to estimates, the welfare schemes promised by the NDA are set to cost a staggering ₹97,000 crore, with the Naidu-led government aiming to roll out the schemes within the first 100 days of taking charge.

Reportedly, TDP's experts have been at work even before the poll promise was made, to tie up the ends and account for funding in various ways from increasing the tax-GDP ratio by 1% to 1.5%, to bringing in revenue generating projects into the coastal state and ensuring completed checklists for due central funding for national schemes. An economic package from the Centre could allow even more elbow room.