It is an image that has earned 49-year-old Naidu the admiration of the young and made him one of the most familiar faces in the country today.

Naidu, who led his Telugu Desam Party (TDP) to an impressive victory in the Assembly and parliamentary polls in Andhra Pradesh, has over the past four years emerged as a star in his own rights after he took over the reins of the state following a coup against his late father-in-law Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao or NTR, the celluloid icon who founded the TDP.

Naidu has worked hard to erase the initial image he earned-that of a wily politician who had forced his way to power through the back door. He is now credited with turning Andhra Pradesh's fortunes around, preparing it to become a modern state that can serve as a model for all of India. The mandate he has received only proves his popularity and the support for his work. It also shows that Andhra Pradesh's electorate has come of age as it has chosen to support Naidu's vision of long-term development of the state instead of short- term benefits being promised by the TDP's rivals, especially the Congress which promised free power to farmers.

Naidu feels Andhra Pradesh is on the threshold of an awesome technological revolution. "I have not a shred of doubt that the future is ours. Andhra Pradesh is ready to take off and become a superpower of information technology (IT)," he said.

The electoral success of the TDP, he feels, was an endorsement of his Vision 2020, which envisages overall development of Andhra Pradesh's people, generation of wealth and employment, and widespread use of technology. "Implementing Vision 2020 in a time-bound manner by fixing targets for every three months will be my top priority. Our focus will be on human resources development, education and health," Naidu told India Abroad News Service.

His enthusiasm and long-term planning has rubbed off on his party colleagues. P Ashok Gajpati Raju, a state minister, said, "Our goal will be to reach the top of the human development index within the country in the next five years. Then we can think of the international standards. We will have to work hard on increasing the rate of literacy, which is very low among women."

Many others are looking towards this new political star to see whether he succeeds in taking Andhra Pradesh up the reform road, a path few Indian leaders have dared to tread yet. S.M. Krishna, the new Chief Minister of Karnataka, has already said he would like to emulate a lot of what Naidu has done. Mamata Banerjee of West Bengal has said she sees Naidu as a role model.

Born in Narvaripally village, Chandrababu Naidu began his political journey in 1978 when he entered the Assembly from Chandragiri as a Congress party member. He served as minister for cinematography, technical education, animal husbandry and minor irrigation under different chief ministers.Naidu's second term is not going to be easy. During his first term he borrowed heavily from the World Bank and other international funding agencies, running up a huge debt. He will have to take tough decisions to make sure those debts are repaid.

Besides, meeting the expectations of the electorate is a formidable challenge, and Naidu knows it. Analysts say people voted for Naidu in the hope of seeing a dramatic transformation in five years and considerable improvement in their standard of living. It takes very little for popular support to turn into popular resentment. The nation is watching how Naidu manages to stay on the safe side of that fine line.