Telugu Desam Party | Now, Nara shakti

Five days before April 20—his 76th birthday—Chandrababu Naidu, four-time chief minister of Andhra Pradesh and head of the Telugu Desam Party, elevated his only child, TDP national general secretary Nara Lokesh, to the post of working president, effectively anointing him as the undisputed successor of the party.

The formal announcement may have been made only now, but the 43-year-old Stanford MBA graduate has been the de facto head of party affairs—and to a large extent the Andhra Pradesh administration as a cabinet minister in charge of the HRD, IT, Electronics & Communication and Real-time Governance (RTG) portfolios—for about two years now. Or since the Naidu-led NDA combine wrested power back from another regional satrap, Jagan Mohan Reddy of the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP), in the 2024 assembly election. The TDP, with 135 MLAs, excluding of allies Jana Sena Party (JSP) and the BJP, in the 175-seat AP assembly, is in a commanding position in the state. The party has a prominent place in New Delhi, too, with its 16 Lok Sabha MPs forming a crucial support base for the Narendra Modi-led NDA government at the Centre.

Since early last year, a seemingly coordinated chorus calling for the creation of another deputy chief minister’s post for Lokesh—currently held by JSP chief Pawan Kalyan—had been growing louder. Lokesh’s visits to New Delhi and his interactions with BJP leaders and ministers have also become frequent of late. In fact, Modi endearingly calls him “Bhai Lokesh”, and had even hosted a dinner for him, his wife Brahmani and son Devansh at his 7, Lok Kalyan Marg, residence in May 2025. The two have been meeting regularly since, the most recent being this April, when Lokesh called on the PM to thank him for the passage of the bill designating Amaravati as the sole, permanent capital of AP.

Back home, no nominated appointment, top bureaucratic posting, transfer or major business deal is said to happen without the heir apparent’s involvement or consent. It’s no surprise, then, that everyone—from politicians and bureaucrats to businessmen and celebrities—wants to be in Lokesh’s good books and firmly out of his ‘red book’, the one he often invokes, said to contain a list of alleged wrong-doers from the days of the YSRCP regime.

LEANER AND MEANER

Lokesh was in a very different place just three years ago. The TDP had its back to the wall, and Jagan’s YSRCP seemed set for another term in office. A debut from Mangalagiri in 2019 had ended in defeat, attracting sneering allusions of being a Pappu, even fat-shaming. Party leaders are in awe of the painstaking transformation Lokesh has gone through since—both politically and in physical appearance. Gone are the stumbling, awkward speeches, and instead has emerged an authoritative leader, who is also a good orator.

Behind the transformation has been a conscious effort to rebuild a positive image. A foodie earlier, Lokesh shed some 30 kilos after the 2019 loss. A party strategist who worked with him recalls how during brainstorming sessions at the party office, “while all of us would be devouring pizzas during lunch breaks, Lokesh would be snacking on boiled vegetables”. The strict diet regime, according to him, did wonders. Lokesh lost weight, but also became a political heavyweight. A workout warrior today, he sports a trim look and a salt-and-pepper stubble.

Lokesh, say political analysts, came into his own as a leader during the year-long Yuva Galam padayatra in 2023. The state-wide yatra on foot, from family bastion Kuppam to Ichchapuram, the northern tip of the state, covered 3,132 km. A TDP functionary who took part recalls, “He was still a haughty, city-bred boy, largely disconnected from the party leaders and cadre when it started, but by the end of the yatra, after the thousands of interactions with local people, he became much more compassionate in his approach.”

GAINING SOME WORK EX

With several high-profile ministries under him, Lokesh has had his plate full since 2024. As IT, electronics and communications minister, he has made Visakhapatnam a key IT hub, competing with the likes of Bengaluru and Hyderabad. Besides the top prize, Google’s $1.5 billion (Rs 1.41 lakh crore) AI hub, others like Infosys, TCS and Cognizant have all flocked here, taking advantage of the LIFT (Land Incentive for Tech hubs) policy unveiled in 2025. Among the sweeteners offered to attract globally reputed tech firms is the contentious offer of land at a nominal price of 99 paise per acre. The state, incidentally, accounted for a quarter of all the investment commitments coming to India in 2025-26.

Lokesh has also been leveraging tech to advance the state government’s objectives in education, health and welfare. Mana-Mitra, a WhatsApp-based digital governance initiative launched last year, provides some 200 citizen services hassle-free.

The TDP minister is also in charge of CM Naidu’s pet project, the RTG initiative. RTG involves real-time monitoring and action using data, satellite imagery and artificial intelligence, and has been a game-changer in several fields, from services delivery and information dissemination to agriculture advisories and extreme weather alerts. In fact, the TDP government is so chuffed by its success that a tour of the state-of-the-art RTG centre in capital Amaravati for visiting VIPs—the latest being Bill Gates—is now almost mandatory.

Under Lokesh, the TDP has also strengthened its welfare framework for party workers and their family members, including a Rs 5 lakh insurance cover, financial support for education, healthcare, and training and skill development programmes to improve employment prospects. In January 2025, the party claimed its membership had crossed the 10 million mark, an achievement widely credited to Lokesh, who oversaw the tech-driven enrolment drive and its seamless registration process. This is a big improvement of 52 per cent from the last time the drive was conducted in 2018—when 6.6 million members were enrolled—and is almost two-thirds of the votes the TDP got in 2024.

Meanwhile, partymen expect Naidu to hand over the state’s reins to Lokesh soon. While a section of TDP leaders links the coronation to Naidu moving to the Centre, “if he is offered something suitable to his stature, perhaps the deputy PM’s post ...” others feel he will stay on in AP to mentor Lokesh for the 2029 assembly election. The TDP scion, though, deflects any such speculation. Speaking to india today, Lokesh says his hands are full. “Our leader (Naidu) has given us a lot of work to build the state. I am not focused on roles but more on my responsibilities.”

THE TASK AHEAD

The post of TDP national working president, which Naidu has bestowed on Lokesh, is the first such for the 44-year-old party. However, even though he wields much influence over state administration matters, coming out of his father’s shadow and establishing an independent identity will not be easy for Lokesh. According to sources, his first electoral challenge will be the local body polls due later this year. The TDP has the advantage as the ruling party, but the opposition YSRCP is expected to give a tough fight, especially in rural AP, an area where Lokesh needs to project himself as a mass leader.

And while the TDP scion says he wants to be known as ‘job creator-in-chief’, he faces a big hurdle in a state that lacks a major growth engine, such as tech hub Hyderabad in neighbouring Telangana (Vizag is still in a nascent stage in comparison). One of the TDP alliance’s pre-poll Super Six promises was to create 2 million jobs for skilled youth. The YSRCP is also taking the government to task over its 2025 LIFT policy, which in the rush to attract investment is allocating land at 99 paise per acre in prime city centres like Vizag to tech giants. A controversy erupted last year over such a land allocation to an allegedly obscure firm.

Meanwhile, the newly reconstituted party committees have Lokesh’s imprint all over—close companions like Rajesh Kilaru and K. Rammohan Naidu are now the party’s national general secretaries. Some seniors have been sidelined in the bargain, and how he manages the situation going forward will be closely watched.

The young leader’s frequent trips to Delhi to meet BJP leaders and central ministers are also being seen as attempts to strengthen his case if and when Naidu decides to hang up his boots or accepts a position at the Centre. Within the state, the response from the JSP and current deputy CM Kalyan will be of interest, for the popular actor-neta is said to harbour ambitions of assuming the top post himself.

How the TDP scion navigates all this will determine the next chapter of his political career. D.A.R. Subramanyam, chairman of the Navyandhra Intellectual Forum, says, “If Lokesh is made CM by mid-2027, it would give him two years on the job, enough time to shore up his credentials for the battle against Jagan.” Despite the drubbing in 2024, the YSRCP leader still commands a 40 per cent vote share and remains hugely popular. Taking him on will be the ultimate political test for Nara Lokesh.