VIJAYAWADA: With the leadership of both the TDP and JSP instructing their respective cadres not to air their opinions either through media or social media platforms on the issue of elevating for Human Resource Development and IT Minister Nara Lokesh as Deputy Chief Minister, both the parties have maintained restraint.
After some TDP leaders issued open statements seeking elevation of Lokesh as the Deputy CM, a section of JSP also raised the demand for elevation of party chief and Deputy CM Pawan Kalyan.
To avoid unnecessary trouble between the alliance partners, the TDP directed the party cadre on Monday not to express their views openly. In response to a question on the elevation issue, Lokesh said, “My hands are quite full in terms of the transformation I need to do in the education sector.
Last five years have been very bad in the education sector in Andhra Pradesh. We are going to launch the Andhra model of education. The blueprint will be ready soon.”
Sources in the TDP felt that the issue was unnecessarily raked up by some leaders to be in the good books of Lokesh. On Tuesday, an internal message was sent to JSP leaders from the party central office, instructing them not to respond on the issue in the media and social media.
“However, the YSRCP, which is waiting to get any chance to break the alliance, tried its best to provoke the JSP cadres. Now, the issue is under control as both the parties restrained their respective party cadres,” a senior TDP leader told TNIE.
At a time when the row over the elevation of Lokesh as Deputy CM intensified, Industries Minister TG Bharath’s statement during the visit to Davos reportedly drew Chief Minister’s ire. “What is the purpose we came here and what are you talking about,” Naidu is said to have told Bharath.