Hyderabad: Cyber-savvy Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu has been "logged off" and the longest serving Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister's dream of staying in power till 2020 turned sour with total rout of Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in the Assembly elections.

As a majority of his Cabinet colleagues and party bigwigs were humbled at the hustings in the worst-ever showing of the regional party, it emerged that Naidu's hi-tech, pro-urban image and his much-publicised development plank failed to impress the voters who gave a resounding mandate to the Opposition combine led by Congress.

A joint Opposition fight, witnessed in the State for the first time with Congress, Telangana Rashtriya Samiti (TRS) and Left parties forging an alliance, and emergence of Telangana statehood as a key poll issue have clearly upset the TDP's applecart.

An undercurrent of anti-incumbency mood, coupled with an effective Opposition campaign focusing on plight of farmers, neglect of irrigation, agriculture and rural employment have added to the woes of the ruling party.

Naidu, a quintessential new generation politician known for his penchant for reforms and privatisation, sought to showcase his Government's achievements during the last nine years and harped on good governance and performance planks, asking the voters to "choose between development and destruction".

His dictum "good governance is good politics" failed to yield any dividend as populist promises of the Opposition including free power to farmers and low interest loans to rural poor have apparently impressed the voters.

Besides, the sympathy factor that Naidu was banking upon in the wake of an abortive assassination bid on him by naxalites in Tirupati last year was not to be seen anywhere as the Opposition juggernaut rolled all over the State.

With the naxalite-affected Telangana region comprehensively voting in favour of Congress-TRS candidates, Naidu's oft-repeated charge of nexus between the Opposition and extremists did not cut much ice with the voters.

In fact, the TDP Government opted for early polls and sought premature dissolution of the Assembly, six weeks after the naxalite attack on Naidu, apparently to harness perceived public sympathy.

The ruling party's think-tank had also miscalculated the impact of Congress-TRS alliance in other regions.

The expected backlash in coastal belt and Rayalaseema regions because of the alliance was nowhere visible as Congress made inroads into TDP's traditional strongholds, particularly in North coastal region where several party bigwigs including Assembly Speaker K Pratibha Bharathi and senior minister P Ashok Gajapathi Raju had to bite the dust for the first time since TDP's inception 21 years ago.