Hyderabad: The 30-year-old Lokesh, son of Telugu Desam president N. Chandrababu Naidu, is going to campaign for the first time for the party in the polls, starting on April 12 in Krishna district.
“In the last elections in 2009, I did campaign for my dad in Kuppam constituency for two days, but this time I am going to take up campaign trail in almost all the districts simultaneously to get an exposure,” Mr Lokesh said.
However, he is not going to contest elections this time.“Maybe next time. I will only work as a soldier for the party this time,” Mr Lokesh told this newspaper.
Mr Lokesh said his father would be contesting from Kuppam this time around too and has no plans to contest from an Assembly segment in Telangana.
“He is not going to send wrong signal to the party. He will contest only from Kuppam. He earned a lot of name for development of Hyderabad city. Seeman-dhra people are expecting him to develop the new state. At this stage he is not prepared to contest from Telangana,” Mr Lokesh said.
Mr Lokesh was confident that the TDP would win hands down in Seemandhra by sweeping over 150 seats out of a total of 175 and said he would not be surprised if the party won 24 out of 25 Lok Sabha seats there. “We have that much confidence now. It is going to be one sided affair,” Mr Lokesh said.
When asked about his father-in-law and actor Balakrishna reportedly upset with not getting due recognition in the party, Mr Lokesh dismissed such thoughts.
“It is not true. Both my father and father-in-law are in good terms. In fact, he met party president before taking up the success tour of his film Legend. Mr Balakrishna was asked to choose from any segment in the state to contest elections. He has promised to inform the party president about his decision after returning from the tour. Now it is only a question of time when he comes and informs of his decision.”
