“Rameeesh……. Sureeesh……!” Have we all not seen this ad on TV? In fact Ramesh and Suresh can easily be prototypes of Rahul Gandhi and Nara Lokesh.
While Sonia Gandhi with her shrewdness managed to consolidate the UPA government at the Centre, Rahul Gandhi as the prince-in-waiting proved to be woefully inadequate in rising to the occasion and the result was there for all to see.
Faced with a formidable opponent in the form of Modi, the UPA just crumbled. Something similar seems to be happening in AP now.
With Chandrababu Naidu completely taken up with his foreign tours and new capital construction, the onus for Party affairs has been put on his son and crown prince, Nara Lokesh.
The inexperienced Lokesh is said to be antagonizing seniors in the Party by making them wait for hours. Also, Lokesh being of young blood is in favor of rewarding meritocracy whereas politics works on the basis of various constituency level equations and not performance alone. This approach of Lokesh though well-intentioned is also said to be making some leaders unhappy.
Rahul Gandhi in his bid to revamp the Congress in Telangana completely sidelined the powerful Reddy community and appointed Ponnala Lakshmaiah as the Party Chief. The move seriously derailed Congress prospects in Telangana.
However, Chandrababu, the experienced politician that he is has been wise enough to detect the trouble early and realized the need to bridge this communication gap between the Party and the leadership.
Hence Naidu has taken matters into his own hands and decided to allocate the Saturday of every week to meeting his Party MLA’s and cadre.
