GUNTUR: Establishing multiple cities as capitals is one of the most foolish decisions of the YSRC government, TDP general secretary Nara Lokesh said in an interview with TNIE.
Exuding confidence that he will win the Mangalagiri Assembly seat, the former IT minister said he implemented 29 welfare and development schemes for the people of the constituency in the past four years and 11 months.
On lessons learnt after the 2019 defeat, Lokesh said the TDP began aggressively countering YSRC’s false propaganda.
Stating that the ruling party has failed to maintain a balance between welfare and development, he assured that the TDP will provide 20 lakh jobs to the youth, which will in turn improve the economy of the State by two-and-a-half times.
With only a few weeks left for the elections, how is your election campaign in Mangalagiri?
I covered 3,132 km as part of my Yuva Galam Padayatra across the State to know the people’s problems. Now, I am fully concentrated on my own Assembly constituency to reach out to the people. I am going on a Statewide tour next week to interact with the youth.
Since the inception of Mangalagiri constituency, the TDP won the seat in 1983 and 1985 only. What made you choose Mangalagiri to contest in the first place?
I am a third generation politician. I did not want to go for a safe seat. I always believe that one should take a tough seat, fight hard and win to prove oneself. I failed in my first attempt as I did not have enough time and I was not able to win the trust of people of Mangalagiri in 2019. Since the day I lost, I’ve been working hard and serving the people of Mangalagiri to win their trust for the past four-years-and-11-months. I am confident that they elect me with a huge majority this time.
After the 2019 defeat, what changes did you make in your election strategy?
We are now able to aggressively counter the false propaganda unleashed by the ruling dispensation against us. They are very good at false propaganda. Well that is something probably we need to learn from them. How to tell a lie and convince people so effectively. When former minister YS Vivenkananda Reddy was assassinated, the TDP was blamed for it. When the CBI began inquiry, it is Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s own family member YS Avinash Reddy, who is again contesting from Kadapa as an MP, was named in the chargesheet. Jagan has destroyed the State economically. There are no employment opportunities. Youth have become disillusioned and they are not able to focus on things. If you observe, the ganja menace has gone up substantially. There is a need to get them out of its influence, and provide a good ecosystem to the youth of Andhra Pradesh, reintegrate back and they will definitely get jobs and that’s what we are aiming to do now.
The YSRC has fielded Murugudu Lavanya, who hails from the weaver community, against you. How confident are you to win against the YSRC candidate?
I have served all the sections of people in Mangalagiri without any discrimination. In the last four years, I have implemented 29 welfare and development schemes in the constituency with my own funds. I believe that I have reached out to the people, cutting across the caste and religious lines. The people will certainly give their massive mandate to me this time.
What about the influence of local factor in the election?
At the end of the day, it is a matter of fact that I was not born here. I was born and brought up in Hyderabad. Post bifurcation of the State, I shifted to Mangalagiri. I have been living here for the last eight years. My vote and my entire family’s votes are registered here. So, I’m as much local as everyone else in the constituency know. Actually, I believe that people will observe who has served them not local or local.
What are the major issues of the people you observed at the ground level during your Yuva Galam Padayatra?
The people’s answer to my question ‘what are you expecting from the government?’ is ‘Provide us jobs. Do whatever it takes to give us jobs. So, if you look at the promises we have given, our first promise in the manifesto is to create 20 lakh jobs, both in the private and public sector. Number two is, lack of basic infrastructure in every constituency. The YSRC government has completely neglected drinking water, roads and drainage system. When I was the Panchayat Raj and Rural Development Minister, CC roads were laid to a length of 25,000 km across the State. We will create better infrastructure everywhere to improve the quality of living. Third is the prevalence of ganja. It has destroyed families. Now, Andhra Pradesh has become the net exporter of ganja to other States. If ganja is found in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and other States, it has come from Andhra Pradesh. We will put an end to ganja menace in the first 100 days of our government. These are the three major issues that I’ve noticed.
You are saying that job creation will be your top priority. If we take the IT sector, many companies are laying off their employees. In this scenario, do you think is it possible to create more jobs in IT sector?
IT is one of many sectors. If you look at Andhra Pradesh, it is clearly a large State. Coastal based economy can be promoted in a big way. Each district has a focus area. If you look at Anantapur, automobiles is its focus area, electronics manufacturing in Chittoor, renewable energy and cement in Kurnool, like that. Every district has a focus area and IT is probably focused in Visakhapatnam. So, we believe that we have the ecosystem already in place. A lot of companies got seated in our term and we can create a spin off companies in the entire ecosystem. We will create both blue and white collar jobs. It is not just focused on IT alone. There are huge opportunities in pharma sector in North Andhra. In IT, new jobs are being created through AI. Big Data is again a big sector. If you look at it, we had a specific policy for data centers and that’s what we got Adanis for. We signed a project with them, unfortunately, it didn’t go forward due to the current government. That’s the project, I’m eager to restart, when the government changes. I think such sectors, if we focus on new sectors, we can create more jobs.
After accusing YSRC of spending more money on welfare schemes and neglecting development of the State, the TDP has announced Super 6 and promised to double the allocation for the welfare schemes, which are very similar to what are already being implemented by the government. Is it correct?
If you closely look at it, you know the difference. The monthly support that we promised to women, is not part of any current scheme. Provision of three free LPG cylinders a year is not part of any existing scheme. We have come up with our own manifesto after seeing the suffering of the people at the grass root level. The first of Super Six is to create 20 lakh jobs. That will enhance the economy by two-and-a-half times. What we are criticising this government is that it is making debts to spend on welfare. That is hurting the people. It is creating an inflation problem. Power charges have increased, taxes have gone up. Everything is going up. It should not be not like that. There should be a balance between welfare and development, and the TDP is known for it. If you look at the Deepam scheme, it was originally introduced by the TDP.
Considering the existing financial position of the State, do you think balancing both welfare and development is practically possible?
We had the same problem in 1995. In 1995, the State was in a huge debt. But the then Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, with his growth vision and planning was able to turn around the State. We are more than capable of doing it and people have seen it.
Is there still any friction among leaders and cadres of TDP, BJP and Jana Sena Party?
It is very common that small issues crop up in a family time and again. But, as the head of the family, the father and the mother sit together and resolve the issues. Similarly, all the leaders of three parties will sit and resolve the issues if any. I am not saying every marriage is perfect. In fact, let’s put it in the other way, no marriage is perfect. Every marriage has its issues. Again it all depends on how you resolve the issues. Minor issues keep coming, small clashes and differences, but at the end of the day, we resolve these issues and move on. Because our agenda is very clear, and it is to develop the State. If we have to develop the State, it is only possible with the tripartite alliance.
In the present political scenario, do you think the vote transfer will occur as successfully as expected?
One 100%. We expect 100% vote transfer to avoid split in anti-incumbency vote to ensure the YSRC’s defeat in the elections. Because, all the three parties are motivating their cadres explaining to them the importance and making sure even one vote doesn’t go outside of the alliance.
Unlike in other States, politicians in our State are using inflammatory language in their election speeches and even TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu. What is the need for it?
I don’t believe that Chandrababu Naidu is using inflammatory language, fundamentally. In fact, if you notice, he is one of the most balanced politicians in the country. He never takes anything for granted. There are certain brand annotations for every leader. For Jagan Mohan Reddy, it has been ‘psycho’ as his brand annotation. And it’s because of his erratic behaviour. The three capital proposal is an erratic behaviour. Because you promised only one capital. While you were entering this premises, you saw Praja Vedika that had been destroyed by his government. It was legal, it was legally constructed, and he destroyed it. Because he is not of a stable mind. If you look at his policies, if you look at his behaviour, that’s what we are explaining to the people. So, we are not using any inflammatory language during our electioneering to create a rift between castes, regions and religions. That’s not something the TDP is into.
With elections just a few weeks away, when can we expect the joint manifesto from the tripartite alliance?
That’s something we are working on. All of us are committed to Babu’s Super Six policy. That’s something and that’s related after the discussions with JSP chief Pawan Kalyan. We have come together to discuss it. Subsequently, we had a detailed discussion with the BJP. That’s the cornerstone of our election manifesto and we are going to announce it soon.
If TDP comes to power, would you like to serve as IT Minister for the second time, or are you interested in any other ministry?
I’ll leave it to the tripartite alliance leadership. The alliance leadership has to decide it. It’s not for me to comment on that. My job is to serve the people. In power or out of power, we are trained by Mr Naidu to do one thing, serve the people. Even during the Covid-19 pandemic also, we were busy serving the people. That is what we are hardwired to do and we will continue to do. We are going to remain very focused. As Lokesh, I’m very focused on serving Mangalagiri people, people of Andhra Pradesh and Telugu people at large. That is the motto of TDP.
Watch the full video of the interview on TNIE Videos on YouTube