The issue of giving elevation to minister Nara Lokesh as the Deputy Chief Minister in the coalition government of the state is likely to flare-up further in the AP politics, though both the TDP and Jana Sena leadership have cautioned their leaders not to express their views openly on this issue.
The latest comment by Lokesh himself that he is not keen for any position, but ready to accept any task entrusted to him has given a clear indication that he is keen to become Deputy Chief Minister of the state.
Though for all practical purposes, he has been identified as the `key decision maker’ in the government, most senior officials and even ministers approaching him before taking any key decision, the presence of Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan as Deputy Chief Minister in the cabinet makes him advantageous.
Moreover, his aggressive nature on several issues related to governance, several times forcing the government to follow his directions. This has created large scale demands from several leaders of the TDP to elevate Lokesh as the Deputy Chief Minister, so as to indicate he would be their choice of `next Chief Minister’.
However, as this has led to counter statements from Jana Sena circles, before leaving for Davos, party chief Chandrababu Naidu has given directions to the party leaders not to raise this issue anywhere. He became impatient when industries minister T G Bharath in his present in Davos projected Lokesh as the `future Chief Minister’.
Since then, TDP and Jana Sena leaders have been maintaining silence on this issue. But, surprisingly Lokesh himself responded to this issue during his Visakhapatnam visit on Monday and made a sarcastic comment that positions are not important to him and he will handle any responsibility given by Chandrababu.
Thus, Lokesh’s comments are such that it is understood that if Chandrababu gives him the Deputy CM post, he will take it. Moreover, he once again announced that he will not continue in the party position- General Secretary any more. Thus, indicating that hereafter he will concentrate more on the government has given an indirect indication he is going to hold much bigger responsibilities in the cabinet.
He said that it is his personal opinion that a person in the party should not be in the same post for more than three terms, and a decision will be taken after discussing this with the party leaders. On his part, Lokesh revealed that he is also going to give up the post of national general secretary of the party. He said that he is thinking of handing over this post to someone else.