Telugu Desam Party MLC Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy, who was having high hopes of making it to the Chandrababu Naidu cabinet in the proposed reshuffle, may have to sacrifice his desire for the sake of Chinna Babu – Nara Lokesh Naidu.
It is now more or less confirmed that Naidu would take his son into the Cabinet in the next expansion, but would have to find a scapegoat to drop out of race to accommodate him. And this goat could be none other than Somireddy himself.
It is learnt, Naidu has asked Somireddy to issue statements in favour of Lokesh, so that it would eliminate competition.
On Tuesday, Somireddy endorsed the imperative need for inducting Lokesh into the AP Cabinet.
While interacting with the media at Nellore, Somireddy pointed out that ever since Lokesh started taking keen interest in party affairs, there was a newfound zeal and enthusiasm among the people, especially among the youth.
The State needs the services of Nara Lokesh in a bigger way and for this it is imperative to induct him in the cabinet, Somireddy said.
It may be mentioned here that speculations were rife in the TDP circles that Naidu was keen to see that Lokesh Naidu was inducted as Minister in the Narendra Modi cabinet at the Centre.
For this he wanted Lokesh to enter the Rajya Sabha by fielding him in the ensuing biennial elections in place of the present member Sujana Choudhary, who is now a Union minister.
However Naidu seemed to have had second thoughts as this might send wrong signals besides antagonizing some powerful sections. Hence, he dropped the idea of sending Lokesh to Rajya Sabha.
