TDP general secretary and former minister Nara Lokesh arrived in Kuppam town on Thursday. He would be starting his historic padayatra from the town on Friday morning. He would be on the marathon walk for 4000 kilometres for the next 400 days.

Lokesh would formally start his marathon walk from Varadarajulu Swamy temple at 11.03 hours in the morning. He would reach the temple from the Roads and Buildings guest house where he would be staying in the night.

He will address his first public meeting in Kuppam town at 3 pm on the first day. His first day padayatra would cover 8.5 kilometres before breaking his walk for the night halt.

He took the blessings of his late grandfather NTR, his parents Chandrababu Naidu and Bhuvaneswari, and in-laws Balakrishna and Vasundhara Devi, before leaving Hyderabad.

Lokesh worshiped in Darga, temple and church in Kadapa before reaching Tirupati. In the temple town, he worshiped Lord Venkateswara on Thursday morning and is ready to launch his marathon walk on Friday.

He wrote an open letter to the people promising to be their voice through his padayatra. He said he would meet every section of the people and listen to their problems. He also said that he would raise their issues and mount pressure on the government to address them or the TDP government would address them after the elections.

Lokesh is confident of wresting power from the YSR Congress in the state in the 2024 general elections. Though he originally planned the marathon walk for 400 days, to cover 4,000 kilometres, he might be forced to conclude it before 400 days as election schedule is likely to be much before the targeted days.