HYDERABAD: Buoyed by the instant success of ‘operation Akarsh’ launched by his party to weaken their bete noire and Leader of Opposition YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, TDP national general secretary Nara Lokesh is determined to invade the fiefdom of YSR Congress and take the bull by the horns.
The heir apparent of Naidu, who had failed miserably to make an impact in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections, is all set to prove his mettle this time.
A day after TDP’s success in wooing five lawmakers from the YSRC to switch sides including Jammalamadugu MLA C Adinarayana Reddy who belongs to Jagan’s native Kadapa district, Lokesh decided to undertake a two-day tour of Kadapa—the ‘bastion’ of Jagan’s family—starting from Wednesday.
Sources said that during the proposed visit, the young politico would hold confabulations with local TDP leaders, besides drawing strategies to engineer defections from the YSRC.
As the TDP has just two MLAs in the district including newly defected Adinarayana Reddy. Lokesh reportedly decided to woo some more YSRC legislators to his party side, during his visit to Kadapa. All the remaining eight Assembly segments in the district are being held by the YSRC.
To achieve this goal, Lokesh has decided to persuade second-rung leaders of the YSRC in all Assembly segments to lean towards the TDP. The party has bestowed on Lokesh the responsibility of dismantling the YSRC in Rayalaseema. “Lokesh is of the view that if he can successfully ensure defection of the second-rung leaders and workers of the YSRC to TDP, he can force Jagan party’s legislators also to switch loyalties later on,” said a close aide of Naidu’s son.
Though 42 corporators of the 50 representatives in Kadapa Municipal Corporation are from the YSRC, Lokesh is said to be confident that he can woo a majority of the corporators to the ruling party. Providing the much needed impetus to Lokesh’s efforts, Kadapa Deputy Mayor Butcher Arifullah recently said that he had decided to join the TDP. “Despite being a deputy mayor, I am unable to get a small development work sanctioned in the Corporation. Hence, I have decided to quit the party and join the TDP for the sake of Kadapa city’s development,” he said.