It appears to be so-near-yet-so-far situation for Telugu Desam Party general secretary and Andhra Pradesh IT minister Nara Lokesh.
He was to join his father, chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu to the US trip beginning late on Wednesday, but his name was missing from the list of the delegates accompanying the chief minister, when it was released on Tuesday night, after clearance from the Centre.
It is not exactly known what went wrong, but Lokesh did not figure in the list of 15 delegates leaving for the US, as approved by the Centre.
Some sources say the union external affairs ministry itself has not given clearance to Lokesh on some technical grounds, while others said Naidu himself dropped his son’s name at the eleventh hour.
Initially, there were reports that Lokesh’s name was included in the list, because he is an IT minister and the purpose of the tour was meant to attract investments from the IT companies.
Later, there were reports that Naidu dropped his son’s name on the ground that the latter was too inexperienced and any goof-up from his side would spoil the entire trip.
Subsequently, party sources said Lokesh had brought pressure on Naidu to include his name for the US tour, since it would send wrong signals to the people and party cadre if he did not attend the meetings with the IT companies.
He also convinced Naidu that it would be a good learning experience. However, Lokesh reportedly assured Naidu that he would take enough precautions to see that there were no goofs-up.
But, it is not known what went wrong but somehow it was big disappointment for Lokesh, finally!
