The suspense over the elevation of Nara Lokesh in TDP is creating a confusion of sort in TDP leaders. Earlier there were feelers that Lokesh may be inducted into the state cabinet in the next expansion. While it will be a while before Lokesh proves his abilities, no one in the party is in a position to block or question his induction for obvious reasons.
While everyone is getting mentally prepared for the induction, the elevation got postponed once again. All of sudden, in a party review meeting, Naidu remarked that Lokesh suddenly slowed down. The events that followed after that are interesting. Lokesh skipped the first two days of TDP workshop and there are rumours in a section of media that there is a rift between the father and son.
While things got normal very quickly, the suspense over Lokesh induction into the cabinet continues. On the other side, the experts feel it’s high time Naidu takes a decision as people will have to be given a good time to digest the family politics and also Lokesh should have enough time to prove himself. But then no one will get to know what is in Naidu‘s mind and his strategy for son rise.
On the other side, the cabinet expansion which was earlier planned for Dussehra is put off until early next year. It will happen to assess the performance after the results of the local elections. It is likely to be a massive shake-up. This is the first cabinet expansion of Naidu after came to power in 2014 elections.
