Nara Lokesh, who is being groomed to be the heir of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu and the Telugu Desam Party, lost his maiden election from Mangalagiri. Lokesh lost to incumbent YSRCP MLA Alla Ramakrishna Reddy by less than 6000 votes.
In a tweet responding to the results, Lokesh wrote, “The TDP, which has tirelessly strived for the development of Andhra Pradesh, respects the people’s verdict in the elections. Even if we are in the opposition, the TDP will always stand with the people. I congratulate Sri Narendra Modi and Sri YS Jagan on winning the elections.”
గత ఐదేళ్ళు ఆంధ్రప్రదేశ్ అభివృద్ధి గురించి అలుపెరుగని కృషి చేసిన తెలుగుదేశం ఈ ఎన్నికలలో ప్రజలిచ్చిన తీర్పును శిరసావహిస్తోంది. ప్రతిపక్షంలో ఉన్నా తెదేపా ఎప్పుడూ ప్రజాపక్షమే. ఎన్నికల్లో విజయం సాధించిన శ్రీ @narendramodi , శ్రీ @ysjagan లకు శుభాకాంక్షలు.
— Lokesh Nara (@naralokesh) May 23, 2019
Mangalagiri has been held by the Congress and the Left multiple times, and the TDP has held the seat only twice — in 1983 and 1985. In 2014, following Andhra Pradesh’s bifurcation, YSRCP’s Alla Ramakrishna Reddy defeated the TDP candidate Ganji Chiranjeevi by just 12 votes.
After working on his father’s election campaign in 2014, 36-year-old Lokesh was nominated as an MLC in 2017. He was then inducted into the cabinet as the Minister for Information Technology, Panchayati Raj and Rural Development.
Lokesh had been working on the sidelines since the 2009 elections, but officially joined politics only in 2013. He started as the president of the TDP’s youth wing and in September 2015, he was made an ex-officio member of the politburo and the general secretary of the party's central committee. In 2017, he filed his nomination for the State Legislative Council under the MLA quota.
A chunk of the voters in Mangalagiri are from the Padmashali (weaver) community, and many of Mangalagiri’s MLAs have also been from the same community. The constituency had Padmashali MLAs from 1989 to 2009. In all three elections, the Congress fielded Padmashali candidates. In 2014, the TDP fielded Ganji Chiranjeevi, a Padmashali, who lost the election by a whisker. Lokesh, on the other hand, is from the Kamma community.
While Lokesh has said that the choice to contest from Mangalagiri was to take up the challenge of making it a stronghold of TDP, proximity to the capital Amaravati has been a major factor. Chandrababu Naidu wanted his son to work on the development of the capital as well. It was also believed that the popularity of the TDP’s welfare schemes like Pasupu Kumkuma and NTR Bharosa Pension would also work in Lokesh’s favour, but that was not the case.
Lokesh’s loss comes as a major blow to Naidu, whose Telugu Desam Party has lost massively to the YSRCP.