Telangana Joint Action Committee (TJAC) chairman Prof M Kodandaram further fuelled speculation of a rift with Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) chief K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) by meeting some of the Congress MPs who have been rather vociferous on the Telangana movement in recent weeks.
The Telangana ideologue visited the residence of Congress MP Madhu Yashki Goud where other Congress MPs G Vivekananda, Gutta Sukhender Reddy, Ponnam Prabhakar and Siricilla Rajaiah and senior Congress leader K Kesava Rao were waiting for him. Revolutionary singer Gaddar and Telangana Gazetted Officers (TNGOs) Association president V Srinivas Goud, and several leaders of Telangana people’s organisations like Rasamai Balakishan accompanied Kodandaram to the meeting.
The professor indicated that the purpose of his visit was to seek the MPs’ support for future activities of TJAC to achieve a separate state for the region. The TJAC chairman is fresh from the success of the Telangana March last Sunday, which took place in the absence of KCR, who was in Delhi then. The TRS boss has returned to Hyderabad since then, but there has been no meeting between Kodandaram and him.
The TJAC chairman did, however, meet the BJP and CPI state bosses to thank them for making the Telangana March a success and seek their support to further strengthen the movement.
At the meeting at Goud’s residence, the Congress MPs reportedly received Kodandaram well and promised to participate in every protest formulated by the TJAC hereafter. Sidling up to TJAC at this juncture would serve the Congress well, in order to further widen the distance between Kodandaram and KCR and carve out more space for itself. Such would be the tactics also of the BJP and CPI, both of which are looking to expand their toehold in Telangana.
Kodandaram’s luncheon meeting with Goud et al. lasted for more than one and a half hours. Emerging from the meeting, Kodandaram said it was resolved round the lunch table to continue combined efforts to strengthen the Telangana movement. He did not want to talk about his speculated differences with KCR.
Interestingly, even as Kodandaram was dining with Congress MPs, the TRS supremo was having a conclave of his own with leaders of the Telangana Employees’ Joint Action committee (TEJAC) at his farmhouse in Gajwel. The invitees were TEJAC chairman G Devi Prasada Rao, TNGOs former president K Swamy Goud and C Vittal.
The TRS chief is understood to have recounted to his audience the talks he had with Congress high commandos in Delhi for well over three weeks.
Ironically, he too has concluded from his parleys in Delhi that Telangana would not be served to him on a platter and that an intense movement was called for. Uncharacteristically, the Pank Panther is said to have sought suggestions on taking up large-scale protests.
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