The Telugu Desam Party leaders and cadre are on cloud nine with the “success” of the “Telugu Jana Vijayam” meeting held at Tadepalligudem in association with the Jana Sena Party on Wednesday.
The party has sent a strong message to the cadres of both the parties that the alliance is not on paper but is also on field.
The way Naidu and Pawan displayed their bonhomie and exchanged party flags of each other is an attempt to convince the people that they are fighting the elections together, irrespective of the number of seats shared.
Almost all the top leaders of the TDP, including Kinjarapu Atchennaidu, Nandamuri Balakrishna and Nadendla Manohar etc, were seen on the stage and they also spoke in aggressive tone, much to the cheers from the party workers.
However, one person who is conspicuous by his absence at the meeting was Naidu’s son and TDP national general secretary Nara Lokesh.
He was somewhere away from the meeting, touring his Mangalagiri assembly constituency and interacting with the people and party leaders.
Naturally, everybody would ask why Lokesh, being the general secretary of the TDP, chose to stay away from such a grand meeting. This led to the various speculations on social media.
One speculation is that Lokesh is not very much appreciative of his father’s attempt to forge an alliance with the Jana Sena Party. For, he doesn’t want Pawan Kalyan to hog the limelight; and that only he and his father Naidu should be in focus.
Another speculation is that Pawan Kalyan himself requested Naidu to keep Lokesh away from the meeting, because he wanted the focus to be only the presidents of the two parties and not others. If Lokesh comes there, the media will pay attention to him, rather than Pawan Kalyan.
However, party sources say Lokesh is desperate to win his Mangalagiri seat and hence, he doesn’t want to divert his attention from there till the elections.
Since Naidu is there to take care of the entire state, Lokesh would be confined to Mangalagiri so that he can win the seat by hook or crook, sources said.
