As the Yuva Galam padayatra by Telugu Desam Party general secretary and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu’s son Nara Lokesh is passing through NTR and Krishna districts, the TDP ranks are going all out to make it a success.
While the local party leaders are struggling hard to mobilise crowds and party workers to the rally, the absence of Vijayawada MP Kesineni Nani has raised many eyebrows.
The TDP leader has been playing a virtual hide and seek game with the party leadership of late.
Many times, Kesineni gave the signals that he might not continue in the party for long, by making strong comments against the party leadership for encouraging his brother Kesineni Chinni as the party candidate for the next Lok Sabha elections.
But very recently, Kesineni issued a statement strongly in support of Naidu with regard to violent incidents at the latter’s rally at Punganur in Chittoor district.
He even wrote a letter to Union home minister Amit Shah complaining against the Jagan Mohan Reddy government.
Subsequently, he went silent again and when Lokesh passing through Vijayawada on Monday, Kesineni was conspicuous by his absence. In fact, he had given a call to the party workers earlier to make Lokesh padayatra a success, but now, he is nowhere to be seen.
And on Tuesday, when Lokesh was addressing a huge rally at Gannavaram, too, Kesineni skipped the event, though several senior TDP leaders, including the newly-joined leader Yarlagadda Venkat Rao addressed the rally.
Interestingly, there were flex boards along Vijayawada-Gannavaram route welcoming Junior NTR into the TDP.
The flexes with pictures of Jr NTR read like this: “Whether it is Yuva Galam or Jana Galam, or Nava Galam; whatever may be the voice, the only name that comes to the mind of Telugu people is Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao (NTR) – the Future CM.”
And Kesineni’s followers have not made any attempt to remove them!
Even in Guntur district, where Lokesh held padayatra, local TDP MP and senior leader Galla Jayadev, too, did not attend the rally!