Hyderabad: For years, the question of who would inherit the political mantle of Nara Chandrababu Naidu lingered as an unspoken undercurrent in Andhra Pradesh politics. The veteran Telugu Desam Party (TDP) national president and architect of modern Hyderabad and now Amaravati carefully sidestepped the question even after his son and Andhra’s IT and Human Resources Minister, Nara Lokesh, was appointed national working president during the party’s Mahanadu event this year.
But in a rare and candid departure from that reticence, Naidu has finally addressed the proverbial elephant in the room—his son and cabinet minister, Nara Lokesh, and the prospect of dynastic succession.
Speaking in an interaction with ThePrint’s Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta, the four-time chief minister laid down an unambiguous caveat for his heir. Naidu said the notion of guaranteed political inheritance was a myth, asserting that neither lineage nor a favourable political ecosystem can be a substitute for public trust.
The remarks mark the first time Naidu has publicly articulated a clear, merit-based threshold for his son’s political future, signalling that while Lokesh may hold the reins of power today, his ultimate ascension to the top job remains contingent on a mandate from the people.
“Whether it is in the film industry, business, or in politics, a favourable environment, infrastructure, and ecosystem may exist. Yet some people succeed, and some others fail. Whether it is entrepreneurs or politicians, the second generation has to earn it. He has to earn a good name; then he will survive it,” the chief minister said.
Emphasising that earning the trust of people is especially true in the political arena, he noted that individuals must rise on their own merit, develop leadership qualities, and earn the approval of people, adding that there is no such thing as guaranteed political succession. Being born into a political or film family, he observed, does not bring success automatically.
However, political observers and senior administrators within the party and the state executive who ThePrint spoke to pointed out that Nara Lokesh has been functioning as the de facto number two in both the government and the TDP.
His rise to becoming the national working president of the TDP in April this year formally placed him directly under party national president Chandrababu Naidu and above party veterans in the TDP’s decision-making apparatus.
In 2024, when the TDP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) swept to power, defeating the YSR Congress Party, Lokesh was entrusted with crucial, high-visibility ministries that drive the state’s economic and administrative engine: Human Resources Development (Education), Information Technology, Electronics and Communications, and Real Time Governance (RTG).
Even though Jana Sena Party’s founder Pawan Kalyan was made the deputy chief minister, controlling RTG gives Lokesh real-time oversight across multiple government departments.
In the just-concluded Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Investment Partnership Summit, CM Naidu announced from the dais that “Lokesh is now looking after all investments”, This, despite the fact that Andhra has named T. G. Bharat as industries minister.
At the CII summit and previous ones, senior officials said Lokesh had emerged as the primary face of Andhra Pradesh’s investor outreach, regularly leading high-level engagements at major fora.
“He has been at the forefront of pitching ambitious, cross-sectoral initiatives, including the state’s ‘Quantum Valley,’ AI data-centre ecosystems, and a vertically integrated space economy ecosystem in collaboration with ISRO and private aerospace firms,” a senior official, who did not wish to be quoted, told ThePrint.
Beyond state-level administration, Lokesh is also known to frequently act as the bridge between Amaravati and New Delhi, leading TDP delegations to meet central ministers and parliamentary leadership to coordinate central schemes and energy-sector cooperation, underscoring his role as the chief minister’s primary emissary.
Politically, unlike his initial cabinet stint between 2017 and 2019—when he entered the government via the Legislative Council and faced criticism for not winning a direct election—Lokesh silenced skeptics in the 2024 Assembly polls. Following his extensive Yuva Galam padayatra, he won the Mangalagiri seat with the third-highest majority in the state, giving him the grassroots political capital to match his administrative clout.
“He has also been functioning as the chief troubleshooter for the party and the state since 2024. Like his father, he has been personally conducting fortnightly reviews of hundreds of Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) and overseeing party activities in various districts to understand how the party and the government are being perceived at the ground level,” a senior TDP functionary, who did not wish to be quoted on the succession issue, told ThePrint.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
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