Ten years ago, when Chandrababu Naidu decided to take Nara Lokesh into the cabinet by making him an MLC, it became a huge opportunity for YSR Congress, Sakshi, and their ecosystem.
They used the fact that Nara Lokesh did not contest an election to become a Minister against the young leader.
He was branded as 'Pappu', and a massive campaign was unleashed to damage his image.
Lokesh used to be over-weight back then and that has come handy for them. The campaign they did against Lokesh is a single-largest malicious campaign against a Political Leader in Indian History.
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The campaign was a huge success, and Lokesh lost his maiden election from Mangalagiri in 2019.
After that, Lokesh remoulded himself. He lost lot of weight, improved his Telugu, increased his subject knowledge, and later did a Padayatra to emerge as a Mass Leader.
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In 2024, Lokesh registered a historic victory from Mangalagiri with a record majority of 91,413 votes.
During his Padayatra and election campaign, Lokesh would always mention that he would write names of those who troubled the cadres in a Red Book.
After the elections, the Red Book became very popular. We have even seen the political leaders of other states announce that they are maintaining their own books in a similar fashion.
Jagan Mohan Reddy, who once never used to take the name of Nara Lokesh, is doing 'Red Book Japam' whenever he comes to the People.
If there are any faction murders in Rayalaseema, YSR Congress would make them political and then attribute them to Lokesh. The other day, Jagan did the same in Rapthadu.
Whenever any YSR Congress leader is arrested, they would term it as 'Red Book Palana'.
Sakshi is attributing every such incident in the state to Nara Lokesh. Today, Senior Journalist Kommineni Srinivasa Rao has written a column in Sakshi on Lokesh. It is titled 'అణచివేతలో.. ఇందిరమ్మకు తీసిపోని లోకేశ్?'
The other day, in a press meet, Perni Nani called Nara Lokesh as 'De facto CM' of Andhra Pradesh.
If Lokesh is Indira Gandhi, there is no way he can be a Pappu. It looks like they gave up on the 'Pappu' campaign against Lokesh.
YSR Congress leaders, including Jagan, are knowingly or unknowingly improving Lokesh's image.
They are clearing up the malicious campaign they ran on Lokesh by themselves.