N. Chandrababu Naidu

Nara Chandrababu Naidu (born April 20, 1951) was the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh during 1995-2004. He holds the record of being the longest serving chief minister of Andhra Pradesh.

He is currently the leader of the Telugu Desam Party, a leading party in Andhra Pradesh.

He was first elected to the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly in 1978 and served as a Congress minister between 1978 and 1983. He was again elected to the Assembly in 1989 as TDP MLA and served as General Secretary and "Co-ordinator" of TDP between 1989 and 1994. In 1994, he was reelected to the assembly. After serving as finance minister for some time, he was elected chief minister of Andhra Pradesh in September 1995. He ruled as the Chief Minister of the state from 1995 to 2004, a period of 9 years. In 2004, the TDP-BJP combine lost the Andhra Pradesh assembly elections to Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy.

Naidu, as he is popularly and shortly known, was able to attract massive Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) into his state with a totally professional and electronic governing style, completely alien to Indian politics. He was successful to the extent that both Bill Clinton, the former President of the United States, as well as Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, visited his state to review both development and prospects of FDI. He was thus awarded The Best Businessman of 2002 by a popular Indian financial daily, called The Economic Times.

External links

• Profile on his website
• Photo of Chandrababu Naidu with Bill Gates
• Photo of Chandrababu Naidu with Bill Clinton