Lokesh served as the Minister of Panchayat Raj and Rural Development and the Information Technology, Electronics and Communication departments from 2017 to 2019 while being elected as a Member of the Legislative Council (MLC) in 2017.

[7] He claimed in January 2013 that Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party derived the Direct Benefit Transfer System from a TDP proposal submitted to the central government.

The digital technology used by the onboarding team – tablets, live data feeds and a real-time dashboard – was the first such use for enrolling and managing party members in the country.

[19] On 27 January 2023, Lokesh started Yuva Galam Padayatra for youth of Andhra Pradesh for 400 days with a road-map to walk 4,000 kms from Kuppam to Ichchapuram.

[25][26] Lokesh won the "Skoch Person of the Year" award in 2018, for his innovative use of technology while resolving issues related to drinking water supply, transparency in governance, and other activities under his Panchayati Raj portfolio.

[32] In the following month, he became the only Indian politician to be nominated to the WEF's Network of Global Future Councils (NGFC), an interdisciplinary knowledge group that deliberates on agile governance in terms of emerging technologies and business models.