As Telugu Desam Party president and former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu is still at his wits end as to why the people had rejected his party in the recent elections so badly, the clamour for his son Nara Lokesh’s removal from the party position is gaining more and more ground within the party.
At the party meeting held in Guntur on Wednesday, many TDP leaders brought it to the notice of the chief minister that the people were not accepting Lokesh as his successor and the fear that the latter would be projected as future chief minister was one of the main reasons for the party’s debacle.
Many leaders have told him that Lokesh’s leadership not gone down well with the party cadres. It is also one of the reasons for senior party leaders deciding to quit the party.
It is learnt Telugu Yuvata president Devineni Avinash, who is likely to join the YSR Congress party, met Naidu and told him that there would be no future for the party as long as he encouraged Lokesh.
Avinash, even complained to party president N Chandrababu Naidu on Lokesh's alleged ill-treatment of him citing some incidents.
He said he would continue in the party if Lokesh is siledlined and he was made in-charge for Vijayawada East or Penamaluru constituency instead of Gudiwada. Similar complaint was made by TDP MP from Vijayawada Kesineni Srinivas alias Nani.
He is suspecting that his rival and TDP Vijayawada Urban TDP president Buddha Venkanna had the support of Lokesh.
Same is the case with Bonda Umamaheswara Rao, who is also planning to jump the fence into the YSRC, also indicated that not many people will stay in the party if Lokesh was at the helm.