One Ramachandra Reddy, who lives in the US, posted on Facebook his doubts about the meeting of Lokesh with Obama, triggering the debate over the much-bandied 'Presidential appointment' which is very difficult.

Hyderabad: It's rare for Telugu Desam Party supremo N Chandrababu Naidu and his media bandwagon to be caught on the wrong foot. The effort by both to build a larger-than-life image for the chief minister's son Nara Lokesh, currently coordinator of programme implementation in the TDP, especially during his ongoing visit to the United States of America, has apparently left them with some egg on the face.

The news of his 'Obama meet' indeed turned out to be an embarrassing moment for the TDP and whittled down the PR exercise around the visit of the TDP scion. What made critics smell a rat in the much-touted Lokesh-Obama meeting? The overzealous media mandarins of the party within and outside are to blame. For, Lokesh has no locus standi or an official position in the government.

The otherwise well-choreographed publicity blitzkrieg suddenly appeared to have fallen flat on the face of the party managers. How? Lokesh himself announced to the media that he would be meeting US President Barack Obama on 7 May, as he has got an "appointment".

Much before that, the TDP made opaque the details of the "so-called appointment" and managed to spread the news that Lokesh will be meeting the US President, apart from addressing and interacting with several industrialists to solicit investments for the state of Andhra Pradesh.

One Ramachandra Reddy, who lives in the US, posted on Facebook his doubts about the meeting of Lokesh with Obama, triggering the debate over the much-bandied "Presidential appointment" which is very difficult.

Though so much of negativity around the meet with the US President was not portended initially, the mouthpiece of YSR Congress, Sakshi newspaper picked up the social media post and began carping about it. Although Lokesh’s visit per se hasn’t been controversial, the allied issues surrounding the tour have been.

Andhra Jyothy, a newspaper believed to be close to the TDP, too questioned the raison d’etre behind Lokesh’s deputation to usher in investments to the state through a weekly political commentary penned by its managing director. Sakshi slammed Lokesh and published a photograph of the invite by the Democratic National Committee for the evening reception with "special guest President Barack Obama" for a White House Victory Fund on 7 May at 5 pm at Sentinel Hotel, 614 Southwest Avenue, Portland, Oregon.

The fundraiser programme has different plans akin to silver, gold and platinum. If a person pays $500, he will be allowed to enter the hall and listen to the address by the President, while those paying $5,000 each get a photo op with the president. Those in the ‘deluxe circle’ paying $10,000 would get to "meet and greet" Obama for a while, maybe a couple of minutes, too.

Incidentally, Andhra Pradesh government sponsored the "official visit" of S Abheeshta, an officer on special duty to the chief minister (this is a political appointment by the choice of the chief minister) and an IAS officer Kartikeya Mishra. The OSD per se is not an employee of the state government.

Though technically, the state-sponsored visit of the government representatives has "nothing to do officially" with the trip of Lokesh, they all moved together ‘coincidentally’ and the photographs in which they posed together were also published in the media.

Though the TDP-friendly media telecast and published some programmes where Lokesh tried his best to showcase the state as a potential investment destination, the same was overshadowed by the boomeranged publicity of the meet with Obama.

The social media bleats that "Chandrababu and his clan are great and all others are waste" also did not show up this time, as those working for the party had to eat crow.

The damage control in the form of a press release that Lokesh explained to Obama about the efforts being made by his father Chandrababu Naidu, and that the US President "heard about Naidu" and asked his son to convey his (Obama’s) respects to him, and the other padded information could not cut much ice with the people. Thanks to the technology explosion.

Just recall the grandeur Chandrababu Naidu enjoyed when Bill Clinton visited India in 2000. The reason: the power of numbers (of MPs of TDP supporting the then BJP-led NDA government). And now, it is anybody’s guess as to who is condescending to whom.

When Naidu famously described the residuary state of Andhra Pradesh as "sunrise state" soon after assuming the reins, not many could mistake the spelling for “son rise”. Not too surprisingly, he began entrenching his son Nara Lokesh in politics by edging out the other “righteous claimants” of NTR legacy.