More than a decade after Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu took up a padayatra across Andhra Pradesh and achieved success in the 2014 assembly elections, it is the turn of his son and party general secretary Nara Lokesh to embark on a similar padayatra.
According to party sources, Lokesh has decided to launch his state-wide padayatra in November and will continue it till the announcement of the schedule for the next assembly elections in the state.
“The TDP general secretary apparently wants to do a marathon padayatra, without giving any break, till he covers the entire state. So, it will go on till January or February 2024. If Jagan goes in for early elections, Lokesh will have to cut short his padayatra,” sources said.
Interestingly, YSR Congress party president Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy too began his padayatra in the month of November in 2017. Starting from November 6, he went on the walkathon till January 9, 2019 in the name of “Praja Sankalpa Yatra.”
Jagan walked for a distance of 3,648 km over a span of 341 days and came to power in April 2019 assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh.
The decision that Lokesh would take up the padayatra was taken soon after the party’s Mahanadu held in the last week of May.
“The party leadership felt that padayatra is the best programme to sustain the euphoria among the party cadre and create a positive image among the people,” sources said.
However, the exact schedule was not finalised yet.
“The route map and the knitty-gritty of the padayatra are being discussed. But it is being done in such a way that it will cover all the 175 assembly constituencies,” the party sources added.