Andhra Pradesh's outlook for 2025: Precarious finances, astronomical poll promises

Amaravati: Though Andhra Pradesh celebrated the astounding electoral triumph of the TDP-led NDA alliance in the 2024 general elections and the pivotal role it played in forming the Union government, it came with a bundle of financial troubles that may hamper the Chandrababu Naidu-led government in fulfilling its poll promises in 2025.

With a fiscal deficit of Rs 65,418 crore until November 2024, the NDA government has to live up to the big election promises such as Super Six and others, with most of them requiring funds in thousands of crores of rupees.

Further, Naidu stressed during a recent collectors’ meeting that the state is saddled with a debt of Rs 10 lakh crore and noted that the FRBM (Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management) won't allow further borrowing, along with Rs 1 lakh crore bills and a shrinking revenue base.

Super Six schemes include Rs 1,500 monthly pension to every woman in the age bracket of 19 to 59 years, 20 lakh jobs for youth or Rs 3,000 monthly unemployment aid and free bus travel for women.

Other schemes are--Rs 15,000 to every school-going child per annum, three free gas cylinders to every household (Deepam – 2) and Rs 20,000 annual financial assistance to every farmer.

According to official sources, the total cost to the state exchequer through 'Deepam-2' scheme alone is expected to be Rs 2,684 crore.

However, promising a mix of welfare and development, Naidu managed to sweep the elections as the super six promises resonated well with the masses.

So much so that the NDA alliance won 93 percent assembly seats with the TDP bagging 135, Janasena 21 and BJP eight.

Though the NDA government is yet to fulfil most of these promises, it made a slow start by delivering cylinders and is living up to the promise of doling out welfare pensions at Rs 4,000 per month.

Likewise, it is also vigourously working towards realising the promise of creating jobs, which is evident from the several investment deals struck with private and public players in the past six months, amounting to over Rs 4.38 lakh crore and with the scope to generate 4.53 lakh jobs.

Among several lucrative initiatives to woo investments, Naidu has unveiled six employment focused industrial policies to target Rs 30 lakh crore investments.

Likewise, tech savvy Naidu is embracing technology in all its forms to run the state. From drones to Whatsapp-based governance, Artificial Intelligence, seaplanes and the identification of Andhra Pradesh as a key partner by Google, the southern state is leaving no stone unturned.

Similarly, he launched "Swarna Andhra-2047" (golden Andhra) vision document, aimed at achieving a 'wealthy, healthy and happy' Andhra Pradesh in the next 23 years, coinciding with the centenary of Indian independence.

With the return of Naidu, greenfield capital city Amaravati, which was abandoned during the erstwhile YS Jagan Mohan Reddy-led YSRCP regime, sprung back to life, and is set to witness Rs 50,000 crore expenditure on its construction over the next three years.

Within six months, Naidu's pet project, Amaravati, received approvals for infrastructural works worth Rs 47,288 crore.

Recently, the World Bank had also approved a loan of USD 800 million for Amaravati while the government has set October 2026 as the target date to complete the mega Polavaram irrigation project.

However, the unprecedented Vijayawada floods due to a breach in rivulet Budameru in September and August, causing a loss of Rs 7,600 crore and claiming 33 lives came as a rude shock as it is located in the vicinity of Amaravati.

As regards opposition YSRCP, not only did its supremo YS Jagan Mohan Reddy suffer a humiliating defeat in the elections, he also continues to endure a steady stream of desertions from his party by leaders who enjoyed plum positions.

The YSRCP, which managed a meagre 11 seats witnessed the exit of three Rajya Sabha members and several other leaders, some of whom had also served as ministers in Reddy’s cabinet from 2019-2024.

In addition to the denial of the Leader of Opposition status, Reddy's woes do not seem to end there as his once confidant and eloquent sister YS Sharmila continues to fire unending salvos against him as the Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) president while the Rs 500-crore palatial mansion on Rushikonda hill in Vizag did damage his reputation immensely nationally.

Despite these depressing developments, Reddy continues to repose his 'faith' on the same team which 'guided' him over the past five years, such as Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy and others, who oversaw the 2024 electoral debacle for YSRCP.

Further, there seems to be no sparing of Reddy by Naidu, who started his onslaught with seven white papers to drive home the message how the former had allegedly devastated the state on several fronts and also went to claim that animal fats were used to make Tirupati laddus during the YSRCP regime.

This allegation snowballed into a major national controversy, hurting the sentiments of crores of Hindus to only subside after the matter reached the Supreme Court and an SIT was constituted to "unearth the facts", which is ongoing.

Further, Reddy is also embroiled in an alleged Rs 1,750 crore bribing scam involving Gautam Adani over favourable solar power contracts and the US Department of Justice charging the industrialist over this matter. Both have refuted the allegations.

In 2025, the NDA government has much to do, starting with fulfilling the Super Six and other election manifesto promises and building the southern state brick by brick.