Even as Telugu Desam Party is giving a huge hype to the proposed padayatra of party president N Chandrababu Naidu’s son and general secretary Nara Lokesh across the state for 4,000 km in a span of 400 days, starting January 27, the YSR Congress party is trying to play it down as usual.
The YSRCP leaders, who always described Lokesh as a non-entity in the state politics without any public image, are of the view that he would have little impact on the prospects of the TDP and on the winning chances of the YSRCP.
When asked what kind of impact Lokesh padayatra would have on the YSRC prospects in Anantapur district, district YSRC president and Rapthadu MLA Topudurthi Prakash Reddy reacted very strongly, underplaying the TDP general secretary.
“Who is Lokesh? Has he ever been elected to the state assembly? Or for that matter as a sarpanch of a gram panchayat or a ward member of any municipality? He was just a nominated MLC. Why should we think so seriously about this man?” Prakash Reddy asked the reporters.
Stating that Lokesh is a non-serious politician, the MLA said the YSRC would not attach any importance to the TDP leader.
“His Yuvagalam padayatra will be a flop show. Noboyd will take him seriously. Forget about its impact on the winning prospects on the YSRC,” he said.
Prakash Reddy said Lokesh would have to face a bankruptcy of issues during the padayatra.
“What issues will he raise? There are no issues concerning the people, as they are all happy with the Jagan Mohan Reddy government,” he said.
He wondered whether Lokesh had the guts to promise to the people to do away with welfare schemes being implemented by the Jagan government, village/ward volunteers’ system and village secretariats.
“Let him make these promises and watch for the people’s reaction,” the YSRC MLA challenged.
