Three months before Andhra polls, TDP's Nara Lokesh wraps up year-long 'Padyatra'
Off the Chennai-Kolkata highway, huge cutouts of Telugu Desam Party president Chandrababu Naidu and his son and party national general secretary Nara Lokesh dot the landscape. Just three months before the Andhra Pradesh Assembly elections, Lokesh is wrapping up his 11-month Yuva Galam padyatra.
People line up on the side of the road, some holding representations and hoping to be heard by Lokesh.
Clad in a white shirt and loose navy blue pants, the 40-year-old walks meeting people, patiently posing for selfies and sometimes appealing to his security personnel to be gentle.
When asked about the biggest learning about his state, he promptly says, «Drugs». «I did not know the extent of the Drugs problem — illegal cultivation and YSR Congress Party's involvement — till I started on this padyatra,» he says adding, «It is as bad as Punjab.
I have flagged it to home minister. If you see any drug haul caught across India, you will notice it has been cultivated in Andhra. We are losing an entire generation to drugs.» He wades into the crowd as women reach out and apply vermillion on his hand.
The response is overwhelming. «I am surprised with the response from women. This wasn't so when I began in January.
It was only after a month of walking that women started coming out,» he says attributing it to their problems to inflation, unemployment, illicit liquor and drugs.
As he meets people, women pass on jaggery to him explaining how the prices have crashed and they are forced to sell it as low as Rs 30 per kg near plantations. «The state has lost all investment.
