Yuvagalam @ 3: Lokesh’s Walk to Power
Lokesh started the padayatra amidst high political tensions between TD and the then-Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy-led YSR Congress government.
Vijayawada: If there is any one event that can be attributed to the political metamorphosis of Andhra Pradesh education and IT minister and Telugu Desam heir apparent Nara Lokesh, it is his ‘Yuvagalam’, a 4-000-km walkathon that he launched three years ago on this day when the party was in the Opposition.
As an individual, he overcame certain shortfalls that had dogged the early days of his political foray and established himself as the “uncrowned” leader of party and state administration. “Today, every Telugu Desam worker is confident that the four-decade-old party’s legacy will be in safe hands, post transition, whenever that happens, because Lokesh has emerged as a leader with the Yuvagalam being the singular contributing factor,” said a confidant of Lokesh.
Lokesh started the padayatra amidst high political tensions between TD and the then-Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy-led YSR Congress government. Lokesh set off from his father N. Chandrababu Naidu’s native constituency Kuppam on January 27, 2003, and stopped after walking 3,132 km with intermittent breaks due to reasons varying from arrest of Naidu to the death of his cousin Taraka Ratna. Several cases were booked against him and party leaders by the then administration and clashes between workers of both parties reported in several places.
“Lokesh used to make a note of important issues to be addressed after forming the government every day at night during padayatra. Once in power, he is going all out to resolve those issues,” said Rajya Sabha member Sana Sathish Babu.
According to the official machinery, the major benefit for the state from Lokesh’s padayatra was the drive for employment creation by the TD government. “The state entered into MoUs with industries with an investment outlay of `2.5 lakh crore in the last 18 months,” a senior industries official said, adding that the employment potential they created ran into lakhs.
The prime task for any party leadership is to activate the cadre and instill confidence about winning elections and TD leaders claim that Lokesh’s walkathon, his fiery speeches and the controversial display of the “red book” to warn officials and politicians who the TD felt were harassing party workers, did wonders. “Look at the strike rate of the NDA post the padayatra in the 2024 elections. Of the 97 Assembly constituencies he covered, the NDA won 90,” MP Sathish Babu added.
Lokesh on several occasions has explained how constant interaction with a cross-section of the people helped him better understand the ground realities. He and wife Brahmani were so emotionally attached with the game-changing moment that she brought out a special collection of photographs of his padayatra.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi made it memorable by releasing the collection, during his almost two-hour-long interaction with Lokesh’s family at the PM’s residence in Delhi last year. Modi was in all praise for the massive outreach programme.
