Behind The Scene: Lokesh has Vision 2020!

Like his father N Chandrababu Naidu, who was dreaming of being in the Chief Minister's post till 2020, bridegroom Lokesh Naidu, too, appears to have a long term vision – of entering politics in the State.

Sources close to Naidu say Lokesh is not a man in hurry and would like to wait till his father steps back from the political scene in the State. Going by his observations, if Naidu comes back to power, which he thinks he would, Lokesh is willing to wait for another 10 years. Otherwise, he may take a plunge into active politics in the next five years.

In the meantime, Lokesh would concentrate on building up his own image in the State through his social service activities and get closer to the people. Right now, he is a consultant to the Pittsburgh Action Against Rape and he would like to establish a similar mission in Andhra Pradesh to help out the underprivileged sections of the society. As a World Bank trainee, Lokesh reportedly formulated a system required for Velugu project of the State government.

And being a management graduate, Lokesh is planning to give a corporate image to the Telugu Desam party from behind the screen. In fact, it is said the appointment of full-time MBA graduates to look after the NTR Trust Bhavan is Lokesh's idea. "Lokesh strongly feels that leadership is action, not position," sources say.

Lokesh, who feels that Naidu had to face the defeat because of some unpopular decisions like slash in the subsidy of rice, removing prohibition, revision of water cess and increase in power tariff, has some strong ideas of winning back the confidence of the people again. That is why, Naidu wants to give Lokesh a more prominent role hereafter.