New Delhi: In an exclusive survey conducted by CVoter for IANS across Andhra Pradesh, a majority of the respondents are of the opinion that the arrest of N. Chandrababu Naidu in an alleged skill development scam will end up helping him and his party TDP in the elections that are due in 2024.
The survey had a sample size of 1,809 respondents.
Currently, Andhra Pradesh is ruled by the YSR Congress Party with Jagan Mohan Reddy as the Chief Minister, who had won a sweeping majority in the 2019 elections.
Overall, a shade more than 56 per cent of respondents in the state are of the opinion that the arrest will help Chandrababu Naidu.
Opinion is divided across party affiliations. Close to 85 per cent of the respondents who identify as supporters of the TDP think that the arrest will actually help Naidu in the forthcoming elections. In contrast, 36 per cent of respondents who identify as supporters of YSR Congress are of the opinion that the arrest will help Jagan Reddy. Three out of every five respondents who identify as BJP supporters think the arrest will help Chandrababu Naidu in the forthcoming elections.
Chandrababu Naidu was arrested by the CID of Andhra Pradesh in a case that has come to be known as the ‘skill development scam’.
According to the allegations, after Naidu became the chief minister in 2014, his government launched a skill development programme in collaboration with some private sector players, including Siemens.
The allegations are that the scheme was a scam as no concrete steps were taken to help the youth of Andhra Pradesh in terms of skill development. Instead, the allegations are that shell companies were formed at the behest of the then Chief Minister Naidu and about Rs 200 crore were siphoned off.
The TDP has vehemently denied the allegations and has called it an act of political vendetta. The matter is becoming even more controversial as the state is due for both Lok Sabha and Assembly elections next year.
—IANS