Amaravati, Dec 28 () Gearing up for 2024 Assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) on Wednesday announced that its general secretary Nara Lokesh will embark on a state-wide padyatra from January 27.
Lokesh, son of TDP president and former Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, will cover 4,000 km from Kuppam to Ichchapuram in 400 days.
Titled ‘Yuva Galam’, it will be an innovative platform for youth. It’s a campaign to mobilise the youth to participate in the agenda-setting process, as well as to raise their voices to express their opinions and demand change.
During the TDP’s ongoing Idhem Kharma Mana Rashtraniki campaign, a large number of young people have been showing up and raising issues in the state that they would not have raised otherwise.
The TDP had now entrusted Nara Lokesh with leading this walkathon to provide a platform for our youth and others to come together, speak up and fight for what they deserve.
TDP’s Andhra Pradesh unit president K. Acchannaidu said during the padyatra, Lokesh will interact with people from various sections of society to know their problems.
The march will begin from Kuppam, the Assembly constituency in Chittoor represented by Chandrababu Naidu.
The route map will be announced soon.
The TDP alleges that Andhra Pradesh has been suffering under YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) rule for the last three-and-a-half years.
“One person commits suicide every four days because of the unemployment. With over 1.5 crore people unemployed, our state has one of highest unemployment in the country. With skyrocketing fuel prices, we are leading the country’s charts in paying the highest prices for petrol and diesel. During the last 3.5 years, every eight hours a woman in the state is victimised due to atrocities against her,” the party said in a note released to mark the padyatra’s announcement.
“Due to backtracked development and lack of investments in the state, the future of youth in the state is at a crossroads. Youth constitute almost 50 per cent of the state’s population but a mere 12% of the MPs from the state are under 40 years of age. We are unquestionably leading, but only in terms of drugs and alcohol abuse, crime rates. This is not what our people deserve,” it added.
The opposition party said Yuva Galam is a mass-outreach program by Nara Lokesh with the goal of sensitizing the youth and voters to the prevalent issues in current governance and interacting with them while walking 100 Assembly constituencies in the state.
Yuva Galam is an opportunity for the youth and others to come out, and participate in the yatra and join the voices of the youth community; also get the opportunity to build your network with key influencers in the state.
People can participate in the Yatra by giving a missed call to 96862 96862, or signing up on YuvaGalam.com.
ms/ksk/