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C Chitti Pantulu & KVVV Charya
Hyderabad, Sept 4: Proving that business and politics go hand-in-hand, the ensuing polls in Andhra Pradesh have thrown up several industrialists into the fray. Though the state boasts of a politician-businessman in the shape of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu himself, and the list of seasoned politicians dabbling in business on the side is long, this is perhaps the first time that many fresh entrants from the business community are also in the fray.
Not surprisingly, it is the "investment and business friendly" Telugu Desam Party (TDP) which has fielded the most number of hard core businessmen for both the assembly and Lok Sabha, with at least five first-timers apart from three established players, including former Union commerce minister B Bulli Ramaiah.
Prominent among these first-timers are the CMD of the Rs 500-crore TGV group TG Venkatesh, PVVP Krishna Rao of the Rs 35-crore Ambika aggarbatti fame, tobacco baron YV Rao, and well-known film producer D Rama Naidu. Though the Congress is not farbehind in fielding known businessmen, with at least a dozen of them in the fray, there are no first-timers. The BJP, on the other hand, has just two candidates in the fray both for the Lok Sabha and assembly polls.
The reasons for jumping into the murky world of politics is different for each one of them. Though most of them would say it is for social purposes, some are candid enough to agree the entry would certainly help their business. "No businessman can achieve his goals without being close to the powers that be," says AP Jithender Reddy.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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