Vijayawada: It looks like Minister for IT and Rural Development, Nara Lokesh, has his own plans for the next round of elections to the State. He seems to be not interested or not ready to buy the plans of his father, particularly on early elections this time too.
It was in last week at the TDP seniors meeting, Chandrababu Naidu had hinted at early polls. A clear poll strategist, Chandrababu Naidu wanted to have the elections in the last quarter of the 2018, between October and December. The year 2018 has two important States going for polls, Gujarat in January and Karnataka in May. Though there are a few more States that are scheduled to have elections in the year, Chandrababu Naidu wants to ride on the success of the NDA in Gujarat and Karnataka and replicate the victory in Andhra Pradesh. It is said that Chandrababu Naidu is confident of seeing the NDA victory in these two States that would build a positive image for the Modi-Naidu combination to benefit the TDP in the State.
It is for this reason Chandrababu Naidu wants to have elections ahead of the Schedule, at least six months in advance. With day in and day out reviews on the Polavaram and Amaravati progress of works, the TDP supremo is confident of winning the mandate to complete the unfinished task. He strongly believes that these two projects are the vote catchers for him.
However, Lokesh seems to be not ready to subscribe to his father’s strategy. Though a novice in politics the young Minister is not prepared to lose even a single day of the term that people have given him in 2014. He wants to complete the full term and seek a fresh mandate at the end. “Where is the reason to cut short the term by a year or even six months,” he asked the media persons when the question of early elections was posed to him.
Lokesh, who is asserting his position in the government and who is projected as the future leader of the party, is developing strong views on elections. While victory is what that matters to a politician, Lokesh seems to be having some big plans of his own to say no to a statement of his father on advancing the elections in the State.
