As the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) is gearing up to conduct this year’s Mahanadu on a grand scale in May, speculations are rife over the responsibilities to be given to senior actor and party legislator from Hindupur Nandamuri Balakrishna.
While there is a strong speculation that party president N Chandrababu Naidu’s son and present national general secretary Nara Lokesh will be made the working president of the party.
Lokesh has already made it clear that he is against holding the post more than two times.
At present, he has been the party’s national general secretary for over 10 years and hence, he would like to step down or seek an elevation.
This has triggered discussions about who will be appointed as the next TDP national general secretary.
According to the talk in the party, Naidu might ask senior leader Nandamuri Balakrishna to take over as the party general secretary.
Balakrishna has won from Hindupur three consecutive times, is presently a politburo member. But there are hardly any instance of Balakrishna attending the politburo meetings, as he is busy with his films.
In the past, there were reports that Balakrishna might even be inducted into the state cabinet, but his own son-in-law Lokesh is already a minister and brother-in-law Naidu is the chief minister, his induction into the cabinet was ruled out.
At the same time, Balakrishna is not very keen on taking big responsibilities in the party because of his hectic film schedules. That is why he never evinced any interest in the cabinet berth or big party positions.
“He will continue to focus on his own constituency activities, besides acting. That is enough for him. He won’t be able to dedicate more time to the party if given any key responsibilities,” sources said.
However, Naidu is of the view that given his growing cinematic appeal, Balakrishna would add further strength to the party by leveraging his popularity in both Telugu states—Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
It will be interesting to see whether Balakrishna will be able to devote full time for the party in the coming days.
