Telugu Desam Social gathering basic secretary and celebration president N Chandrababu Naidu’s son Nara Lokesh will likely be dealing with a difficult job to show himself as a pacesetter of calibre, as he embarks on a marathon 4,000-km-long padayatra (foot march) beginning Friday.
After taking blessings of his mother and father and paying floral tributes to his grandfather and TDP-founder late N T Rama Rao at NTR Ghat at Tank Bund on Wednesday, Lokesh flew right down to Kadapa the place he carried out particular prayers on the well-known “pedda dargah”, Lord Lakshmi Venkateshwara temple and Roman Catholic Church at Mariyapuram. He had the darshan of Lord Venkateshwara at Tirumala within the early hours of Thursday earlier than going to Kuppam.
“The TDP basic secretary would start his padayatra from Kuppam, the native constituency of his father Chandrababu Naidu on Friday morning,” a TDP official launch stated.
Christened as “Yuva Galam” (voice of youth), the padayatra would cowl over 150 out of 175 meeting constituencies throughout the size and breadth of Andhra Pradesh and find yourself at Ichapuram in Srikakulam district over a interval of 400 days.
“The padayatra will conclude forward of the meeting elections within the state scheduled early subsequent 12 months,” TDP politburo member Varla Ramaiah stated.
An opportunity to show his management qualities
It has been almost 10 years since Lokesh entered lively politics in Andhra Pradesh, however until date, he has not acquired an opportunity to show his management talents. Although he had headed the youth wing of the TDP and later turned the overall secretary of the celebration, he has not acquired the acknowledgement as a powerful chief within the celebration.
“Not like Chandrababu Naidu, who has been a shrewd politician and a profitable chief minister for over 14 years, Lokesh has by no means been a mass chief and so, doesn’t have the acceptability among the many frequent individuals, at the very least until now. All nowadays, he has been basking within the glory of his grandfather late NTR and father. His management credentials are extremely disappointing to say the least,” says political analyst Ramu Suravajjula.
Secondly, Lokesh’s electoral file is disappointing, as he has by no means received an electoral battle. He straight turned a minister in his father’s cupboard and later nominated to the state legislative council below the MLAs’ quota. He fought his first election in 2019 from Mangalagiri meeting constituency however misplaced to YSR Congress celebration candidate Alla Ramakrishna Reddy with a substantial margin.
That turned out to be an enormous unfavorable issue for Lokesh. Clearly, his electoral debacle has given a possibility to his detractors, significantly the YSR Congress celebration leaders, to run him down by coining sobriquets like “Chitti Naidu” and “Pappu Naidu.”
“Lokesh is a failed politician. He’s greater than a sarpanch, however lower than an MLA. No one takes him severely. If he thinks individuals will throng him to see through the padayatra, he’s mistaken,” says YSRC chief and state minister for tourism R Ok Roja, who typically refers to Lokesh as “Pappu Naidu.”
Survajjula says Lokesh doesn’t have the mass attraction, in contrast to his contemporaries like Ok T Rama Rao, who proved himself an ready successor of his father – Bharat Rashtra Samithi president and Telangana chief minister Ok Chandrasekhar Rao — or for that matter Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, who carries the legacy of his father Y S Rajasekhar Reddy, and floated a brand new regional celebration and catapulted to energy inside seven years.
“The most important downside for Lokesh is that he lacks oratory expertise to draw plenty, in contrast to his father. He has to wrestle onerous to show himself and the current padayatra would possibly as nicely give him such a possibility to hone his expertise as a pacesetter,” Survajjula stated.
He’s of the view that the padayatra would possibly entice individuals due to the prevailing political state of affairs. “Anti-incumbency issue and the TDP cadre’s do or die state of affairs will turn out to be useful for him,” he stated.
Suravajjula, nonetheless, says Lokesh ought to appoint a set of fine content material suppliers reasonably than counting on off-the-cuff remarks. He ought to do correct homework through the yatra.
A senior TDP chief, who most well-liked anonymity, stated many celebration leaders, significantly seniors, are nonetheless sceptical about Lokesh padayatra and its affect on the celebration prospects within the subsequent elections. “We’re not capable of say whether or not Lokesh padayatra will flip across the fortunes of the celebration or develop into a unfavorable issue for the celebration,” he stated.
He identified that it was apparent that by encouraging Lokesh to take up the padayatra, Naidu desires to advertise his son as his inheritor obvious within the celebration. “On the similar time, Naidu is eager on having an electoral alliance with Jana Sena celebration headed by common actor Pawan Kalyan, who can also be nurturing the ambitions of changing into the chief minister. It might result in battle of pursuits,” he stated.
Suravajjula agrees with this viewpoint. “Naidu selling his son might not be taken kindly by Pawan Kalyan, who can also be going to launch his personal yatra shortly. The equations between the 2 events would possibly rely upon the individuals’s response to their respective yatras,” he added.