hyderabad chandrababu naidu shed his ceo garb and donned the netas earthy colours on wednesday when he released his partys manifestoin a 32page document where his pet theme information technology was dismissed in a paragraph towards the end of the writeup the tdp president sounded the backtobasics callthe partys pledge list was loaded heavily in favour of the rural sector it talked of a rs 60000crore corpus for rural uplift and the setting up of a backward areas development councilnaidu though insisted that reforms still remained his calling card reforms he justified had been mentioned in passing only because they were being implemented anyway and thats the way it would be in futuredespite the cms protestations a reading of the party pledgefest clearly showed that the spotlight had been turned on developmentwelfare themethe party had decided to put its money where its vote is it promised to sink rs 40000 crore in agriculture and allied sectors irrigation microirrigation water conservation and neeru meeru another rs 15000 crore in infrastructure building drinking water roads drainage and sanitation and rs 5000 crore in electrificationin an exercise perhaps aimed at silencing his critics whove been taking him to task for his urban bias naidu pitched his appeal at the rural folkacutely aware that water and power would be key issues his guide map to the future talked in detail about ensuring drinking water to villages and giving priority to rural road construction it promised cell phone and landline connections in the rural beltthe document talked of rs 250 crore loans for dwacra women and sales tax exemption for gas connections