Chief minister Chandrababu Naidu’s teleconferences have become a hot topic for debate among the senior officials and district-level officials in the state. “The teleconferences, which begin early in the morning, have become Naidu’s morning prayer, “said a senior official, who was fed up with sitting idle without attending any morning chore, listening the to conversations in the teleconference.

Not only from Vijayawada, Naidu performs this morning ritual, even while he is on tours. The other day he addressed a teleconference from Anantapur. Later, Kakinada had become his venue for teleconference. Today, on Saturday, he addressed the conference from Vijayawada before leaving for Rajahmundry, then to Kadapa. According to CMO sources, today he addressed a conference, which began at 7.45 am, in which about 8000 people hooked. Yesterday he started addressing the officials at 8 AM. “There is no fixed time. Every official in the state should sit waiting for the conference call ,” said an official. The problem began when huge number of TDP workers and grass-root leaders began hooked to the conference. CMO and TDP leaders are circulating the phone number to all as part of the CM personality promotion program by CMO. Now, teleconference has become a sort of public meeting early in the morning. So the CM has started playing for the TDP galleries in the conference. The conference has become a propaganda tool to send across an impression that Naidu is working too hard for the state without sparing time even for private life, and to project Naidu as busiest chief minister. The CM also uses the occasion to issue instructions and directives to officials. He gives lectures on how to build a strong state, how to create wealth and how to make Andhra Pradesh number one state in India and in the world.

For example, in Saturday’s teleconference, in which 8000 members reportedly participated, the Chief Minister issued instructions as follows:

* I will not tolerate irregularities in the distribution of Chandranna Sankranti Kanuka.

* There will be no tolerance for such acts.

* He directed the district collectors to take strict action against those who are hurting the integrity of the state government by doing such things.
* He asked the state administration to work towards achieving 100 % results in the 20 non-negotiable indicators.
* He directed the officials to enumerate the details of the people who don’t have a house or land in the state.