The defection of prominent Backward Classes leader from Mangalagiri assembly constiteuncy Ganji Chiranjeevi from Telugu Desam Party to the YSR Congress party, has upset the calculations of TDP general secretary and party president N Chandrababu Naidu’s son Nara Lokesh.
Lokesh, who lost the assembly seat from Mangalagiri in the 2019 assembly elections, has been nurturing the constituency carefully in the last three years and has regained the lost ground to a large extent, thanks to the support extended by Ganji Chiranjeevi and his weavers’ community.
But Jagan who is hell bent on defeating Lokesh for the second successive time, dealt a master blow on Lokesh by engineering the defection of Chiranjeevi, who has tremendous clout in the weavers’ community.
Along with weavers, Chiranjeevi would be able to attract the other sections of the BCs, if he is given the YSRC ticket in the next elections. Besides, the Reddy voters would also turn towards Chiranjeevi.
As a result, all the calculations of Lokesh have gone awry and his situation has come back to square one. He knows that if he loses this time again, his political future would be at stake. So, he has decided to change his strategy, party sources said.
According to these sources, Naidu is now contemplating fielding another strong candidate from weavers’ community to take on Chiranjeevi and shift Lokesh to another safer constituency.
Before choosing Mangalagiri in 2019, Lokesh was tipped to be fielded from Bheemili assembly constituency in Visakhapanam district. This was originally represented by former minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao between 2014 and 2019, but Naidu shifted him to Visakhapatnam (north) to enable Lokesh to contest from there.
But in the last moment, Naidu fielded Lokesh from Mangalagiri with a hope that he might attract the voters of Amaravati, who have benefitted from the capital city project. However, the strategy backfired and Lokesh had to bite the dust in the hands of Alla Ramakrishna Reddy.
Now the things turning against Lokesh again in Mangalagiri, Naidu is said to be planning to move his son to Bheemili. A final decision is yet to be taken, sources said.
One wonders whether Bheemili would be a safe seat for Lokesh or not, as Jagan will play the executive capital sentiment there. So, there is no surprise if Naidu’s strategy backfires again!
