TJAC unhappy with TRS

Hyderabad: The Telangana Joint Action Committee (TJAC), perhaps for the first time after its inception, has lashed out at the actions of Telangana Rashtra Samithi in the run-up to the elections.

At the steering committee meeting held here on Friday, TJAC leaders criticised actions of various political parties particularly the TRS. The decision of the TRS to admit former minister Konda Surekha and Tandur MLA T Mahender Reddy did not go down well with the TJAC. District JACs expressed strong reservations against admitting them into the party because both leaders initiated crackdown measures on Telangana supporters and even filed cases against them. Taking them into the party was against the very spirit of the movement, some of the members felt.

According to sources, all the members of the steering committee and district TJAC members felt that the TRS had changed its attitude after Parliament had passed the Bill on separate Telangana. Though TJAC had been playing a major role in the agitation once the T state had become a reality, the TRS had been sidelining the TJAC, they felt. The members felt that the TRS should not have dumped the Congress and refused to have any poll tie-up with the ruling party which had played a major role in making Telangana state a reality. It had sacrificed its political future in Seemandhra region. This aspect could not be ignored, the TJAC felt. They were also critical of all the political parties including the Congress, the TRS and the BJP for not giving importance to those who actively participated in the agitation for separate state in the municipal and local body elections.

The JAC meeting was also critical of strategies adopted by the pro-Telangana party in local body polls. People having huge money in their bank accounts are being given tickets even in local body polls. Telangana protagonists and leaders, who went through several hardships and difficulties at personal and professional levels by their active participation in districts and rural areas, were totally ignored, the meeting felt.

Not only TRS, TJAC leadership slammed actions of Congress and BJP. The meeting took strong objection over allotment of Congress ticket to T Jagga Reddy, who belittled aspirations of people on several occasions in the last five years. The proposed alliance between BJP and TDP was also not well received. TJAC leaders felt that N Chandrababu Naidu did what all he could to stall creation of Telangana particularly during parliament session. Every person in Telangana knew about this and in this backdrop BJP joining hands with TDP defies logic, leaders said.

Meanwhile, BJP representative in the meeting, C Ashok Kumar Yadav proposed the unanimous selection of active members of TJAC in the upcoming elections. Why cannot all political parties reach a consensus and ensure that at least 10 members are elected to the legislative bodies.

Meanwhile, TJAC has finalised its manifesto document, which will be made public in the next few days. The suggestions of all stakeholders were taken in preparation of this document. TJAC had decided to hold its next meeting on April 3 to discuss on various issues including the stand to be adopted in the upcoming elections.

Prominent among those who attended the meeting were Prof M Kodandaram, Mallepalli Lakshmaiah, Devi Prasad, C Vittal, Vijender Reddy, D Shravan of TRS and BJP leader Ashok Kumar Yadav.