TDP chief promises free education for all children

Taking poll–related promises to new heights, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) President and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu has promised free education for all children “from KG to PG” if his party is voted to power in the 2014 Assembly elections.

There is more to come. After free education, youths will get unemployment dole of Rs 1,000 per month till they find a job. Naidu doled out these promises while addressing a youth rally, “Yuva Tarangalu”, organised by his party in Hyderabad.

However, he failed to elaborate on how he planned to fund such schemes. In a bid to attract the youth, he promised 33 per cent quota for the youth while distributing party tickets in the next elections. The TDP chief also promised self employment to all the rural unemployed and the setting up of development zones in every district.

Once hailed as the poster boy of reforms, Naidu has been making a conscious effort towards an image make–over ever since losing power in 2004. However, on the eve of the 2009 polls, he offloaded his reforms baggage, embraced populism with gusto and made some astonishing poll promises including a direct cash transfer scheme for the poor. Despite being billed as the “Mother of all poll promises”, the cash transfer scheme failed to yield electoral benefits for his party as the Congress returned to power for a second term.

Dubbing the present Congress government as “corrupt and inefficient”, Naidu called upon youth to work to bring the much-needed change.