Even as Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao was eyeing a role for himself at the national level to bring a “qualitative change”, his protégé turned foe M Kodandaram on Monday announced launching a new party “Telangana Jana Samithi” to bring a change in the state politics.
Announcing the name of the party in Hyderabad on Monday, Prof Kodandram said that the new party will work to realize the dream of “Saamajika Telangana) (social justice based state) by dethroning the Telangana Rashtra Samiti government.
Kodandaram, a retired professor of Osmania University had hit the limelight when K Chandrasekhar Rao had handpicked him at the peak of Telangana movement to head the Telangana Joint Action Committee to bring all political parties and other organisations on a single platform.
Though Kodandaram played a successful and effective role by emerging as a united platform for the organisations of all hues and organised massive programs like indefinite strie by Government employees and Million March, he fell out with TRS after the formation of Telangana State in June 2014 and finally parted ways.
The announcement of the new party came a day after getting the approval from the Election Commission to the name of the party. Earlier Kodandram also tried to organise the agitations under the banner of TJAC on the issues of unemployed youth and the farmers.
“I am compelled to launch a new political party as the TRS Government headed by the Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had failed in fulfilling the people’s dream of a democratic and justice based Telangana”. He said that the dream of lakhs of youth of getting a job was shattered.
Charging KCR with adopting anti democratic and autocratic methods, Kodandaram said, “power in Telangana State is confined to the member of a single family and the formation of a new state had benefited the same set of old contractors and big business houses like in integrated Andhra Pradesh”, he said. “This is not the Telangana State for which people took to the streets and fought for years and hundreds of people laid down their lives”, Kodandaram said.
Kodandaram, whose earlier attempts to organize protests on various issues were suppressed by the TRS Government by arresting him and his followers, said, “there is no democratic freedom or space in the state. There is no freedom to organize rallies and demonstrations or meeting and even visit villages”, he said.
lashing out at the Chief Minister he said that he was not meeting even his own ministers and party MlAs leave alone the ordinary people.
While the flag of the party will be released in a couple of days, Telangana Jana Samiti will kick off its campaign with a massive public meeting in Hyderabad on April 29 after forming the State and the district committees.
