Hyderabad: The Prof. Kodandaram-led Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS) will continue to support the ruling Congress in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in the state. While the TJS is nowhere as strong as mainstream parties, its support to the Congress in last year’s Assembly was also crucial.
TJS president Prof Kodandaram, who also headed the Telangana statehood movement, confirmed that his party will not contest in the Lok Sabha elections. Last year, Prof Kodandaram had scrapped his plans to contest the Assembly polls after the Congress promised nominated posts in return. He was also nominated for a a vacant MLC position by the current Revanth Reddy-led government.
However, his nomination was scrapped by the Telangana high court. It is to be seen whether he is allocated an MLC position again, or if he is accommodated in other positions by the government. The TJS had a pre-poll alliance with the Congress for the 2018 state polls. However, towards the end, the Congress ended up giving tickets for seats that were allocated to the TJS. So both sides ended up contesting from same seats in spite of an alliance.
Prof Kodandaram had spearheaded the last leg of Telangana’s separate statehood movement as the chairman of the Telangana Joint Action Committee, from 2009 to 2014 alongside Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) supremo K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR). After the state was formed in 2014, both of them however had a fallout, as the TJAc continued to hold protests against the then BRS over various issues.
In fact, the TJAC even held a few big rallies with unemployed youth in 2017 itself, which was eventually crushed by the state government under KCR. Eventually, Prof Kodandaram formed the TJS and formally contested the state elections in 2018. However, it flopped as the TJS was not able to win even one seat. In the days leading to last year’s November 30 state election, Congress leaders met Prof Kodandaram and convinced him to support the party to fight the BRS.
