Another heir, another padyatra: In Andhra, Chandrababu Naidu’s son Lokesh seeks to chart his course

The stampede at a Naidu rally leaving eight dead and scores injured threw a dampener on the announcement, but the vociferous endorsement of Lokesh by several senior TDP leaders indicated that the road for the 39-year-old, currently TDP national general secretary, is clear.

TDP Andhra president Kinjerapu Atchennaidu said Lokesh would get close to the people via the padyatra. “His march is not like a film shoot or a designer walkathon, like the one Jagan undertook, blowing flying kisses. This is aimed at connecting with the people, especially the youth. Lokesh will become the voice of the people, a ray of hope for those in distress, especially the youth,” Atchennaidu said, adding that the youth were disgruntled with the Jagan government as its “destructive policies” had caused industries to leave.

On the TDP putting its hopes on a leader who had lost the only election he fought, Atchennaidu said: “What is the link between that defeat and the padyatra? A number of politicians have come to power after reaching out to people through padyatras.”

TDP Politburo member Kalva Srinivasulu said that given that he had held the portfolios of IT and Panchayati Raj, Lokesh knew both the pulse of the youth and the grassroots. Former minister Nimmakayala China Rajappa also endorsed Lokesh, while others said that the padyatra would help him emerge as a mass leader.

Addressing a public meeting at Kurnool on November 16, Naidu mentioned retiring should the TDP lose the 2024 polls. Celebrated for attracting investment to Andhra as CM and turning Hyderabad into a hub of software, the TDP chief has since lost ground to Jagan. The YSRCP leader won a landslide victory in 2019 and remains on the good side of the BJP, ensuring that the latter has left Andhra largely alone in its aggressive south-ward expansion.

Naidu said at the Kurnool rally: “If I have to stay in politics, reach the Assembly, and ensure justice for Andhra Pradesh, you have to elect the TDP in 2024. Unless you ensure our victory in the next election, that may be my last election.”

Atchennaidu said that the Jagan government had failed to keep its promises to the youth such as recruitment every year. “Not a single vacancy has been filled in the past three-and-a-half years. The youth are looking towards the TDP, which created large-scale employment between 2014 and 2019,’’ he said.

Lokesh has been trying to seize the limelight since early this year, holding protests targeting the Jagan government. In an image that went viral, he held up a stone thrown allegedly at him on April 28, saying: “We are not cowards that we will run away if pelted by stones. We are the Telugu Desam Party, and YSRCP leaders should know that they cannot scare us.”

Lokesh was at the time visiting the family of a woman who was allegedly gangraped and murdered in Guntur district. Soon after Lokesh’s visit, Social Welfare Minister M Nagarjuna and other YSRCP leaders had rushed to meet the family of the victim and announced them a financial aid of Rs 10 lakh.

In another admission that it was closely watching Lokesh, the state government has filed 11 FIRs against him, related to protests, in the past few months. The agitations he has led include against spurious liquor, healthcare services, and alleged gambling dens. After a TDP protest against an alleged “casino” run from premises owned by Kodali Venkateshwara Rao, Jagan had dropped him as Civil Supplies Minister.

Before making his political debut around May 2013, Lokesh, an MBA from Stanford University, largely concerned himself with the family-owned Heritage Foods Ltd, though he was known to be the backroom boy planning tours and meetings of father Naidu and senior TDP leaders. In fact, a 2,800-km-long padyatra Naidu undertook between October 2012 and May 2013 had first brought Lokesh to even TDP leaders’ attention, with the proud father “introducing” him at a rally on the outskirts of Hyderabad and naming him the head of the TDP’s Youth Wing and in-charge of a Cadre Welfare Fund.

After the TDP swept to power in October 2015, in the first election held after the bifurcation of Andhra, Naidu had made Lokesh the party general secretary. In 2017, he was nominated to the Legislative Council and inducted into the Cabinet as IT, Panchayati Raj and Rural Development Minister.

In May 2019, in his maiden election, Lokesh had contested from Mangalagiri Assembly seat, but lost to the YSRCP’s A Ramakrishna Reddy by 5,337 votes.

YSRCP spokesperson and Water Resources Minister Ambati Rambabu said they were not bothered about Lokesh’s padyatra as he had no political standing. “I am sure wherever he goes people are going to question him, as to what he or the TDP have done for the welfare of the public.”