The Telangana Joint Action Committee (TJAC) wants to let Nagam Janardhan Reddy’s Telangana Nagara Samiti (TNS) become its constituent, but is wary of the reservations harboured by the elephant in the room, the TRS.
In the coming few days the TJAC will appoint a committee to take up the matter with the TRS leadership.
Janardhan Reddy quit the TDP, resigned his seat in the Assembly and won reelection from Nagarkurnool on the Telangana plank. Since founding the TNS, he has toured all over the region calling for unity of all Telangana forces regardless of their political hue.
The TRS is not openly opposed to Nagam’s entry into the TJAC but its boss K Chandrasekhar Rao has is said to have expressed his reservations to TJAC leaders. TRS MLA Pocharam Srinivas Reddy, however, says the TRS has not set any conditions upon TJAC on Nagam’s admission. It is for the TJAC to take a decision, he said.
TRS leaders are apprehensive that if Nagam joins the TJAC, it may diminish the TRS’s influence.
Being a senior politician, Nagam has good relations inside and outside the Telangana movement. After he quit the TDP, he was invited to join the TRS but chose to strike out on his own. However, the TRS managed to lure Nagam’s close friend, K Harishwar Reddy, into its ranks. It is also trying to lure another suspended TDP MLA S Venugopalachary, a close friend of KCR.
Another issue that has to be sorted out is that Nagam wants Telangana organisations to support the NDA since it is the only national alliance that has promised separate statehood to Telangana in unequivocal terms. The TRS, on the other hand, wants to keep the door open to both the NDA and UPA.
TJAC chairman M Kodandaram says Nagam’s membership is not an important political issue as it is prepared to work with all pro-Telangana forces including Nagam. “We have not fixed any deadline for giving membership to Nagam Janardhan Reddy. He will discuss the matter with all TJAC constituents,’’ he said.
Telangana Gazetted Officers Association (TGO) president V Srinivas Goud wants Nagam to declare his political agenda so that the TJAC can convince its constituents on giving membership to him.