It has been 12 days since Telugu Desam Party general secretary and party president N Chandrababu Naidu’s son Nara Lokesh commenced his much-trumpeted padayatra from Kuppam in Chittoor district.
Christened as “Yuva Galam” (voice of youth), the padayatra of Lokesh crossed Kuppam and entered into Palamaneru and Chittoor assembly constituencies. On Tuesday, it is passing through Chittoor.
For the first one week, there was a huge hype for Lokesh padayatra and the TDP leaders were euphoric over the ‘response’ from the people. But subsequently, the padayatra is learnt to have lost its steam.
According to reports from the ground, the TDP leaders at the local level are struggling to mobilise people to the Lokesh padayatra and his meetings, but there has been no spontaneous response from them.
“Even the local TDP cadres not very enthusiastic in attending Lokesh meetings and the party leaders have been given instructions to see that there is a decent crowd for the meetings. Since Lokesh is not a crowd puller, there is not much enthusiasm among the crowds,” a local reporter from Chittoor said.
Secondly, Lokesh is not as articulate as his father and his dialogues lack the punch to attract the people.
“He is trying to imitate his father in modulation, but it is not very attractive. He is repeating the same speech at most of the places,” the reporter said.
Even the media, which has given a decent coverage to his padayatra in the initial days, has pushed it to the inside pages. The pro-TDP media, too, has not been carrying more than one or two pictures and reports on Lokesh padayatra.
That is why the TDP leaders are trying hard to get some coverage by blaming it on the police for creating hurdles to the padayatra.
“The TDP leaders are provoking the police so that the padayatra gets into limelight if the police take any strong action,” sources said.