The Telangana Joint Action Committee chairman M. Kodandaram and Telangana Non-gazetted Officers’ Association president G. Deviprasad Rao met TRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao at his residence on Wednesday, triggering speculations that they may join the TRS.
However, Prof. Kodandaram told The Hindu that both of them declined Mr. Rao’s offer of party tickets to contest in the coming elections and preferred to play a role in the development of Telangana. The TJAC chief was offered to choose between Secunderabad and Malkajgiri Parliament seats while Mr. Deviprasad Rao was sounded out for Sangareddy Assembly constituency. Prof. Kodandaram had declared recently that he would not enter politics.
The TRS chief had already named Telangana Gazetted Officers association president V. Srinivas Goud as the party candidate for Mahbubnagar Assembly constituency but it invited a strong backlash from the in-charge of the constituency Syed Ibrahim.
Meanwhile, Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao has been increasingly making it clear that the TRS will not have an alliance with the Congress in the polls by announcing the candidates at frequent intervals. On Wednesday, he named Y. Yella Reddy, the sitting MLA of Narayanpet in Mahbubnagar, as the candidate for Makthal in the same district. He also declared that student leader Pidamarthi Ravi would be fielded from a constituency where he was sure to win by not less than one lakh votes. Both Mr. Reddy and Mr. Ravi joined the TRS earlier in the day.
At Gadwal recently, Mr. Rao declared the candidature of Mr. Krishnamohan Reddy who contested on behalf of TDP in 2009. Sources said he had more or less finalised G. Jagadishwar Reddy for Suryapet, Veeresham for Nakrekal, G. Sunitha for Alair, Shakil Ahmed for Bodhan and S. Niranjan Reddy for Wanaparthy.
Addressing a meeting to admit Mr. Yella Reddy and Mr. Ravi, Mr. Rao said he liked to see three or four students get elected as TRS MLAs and an equal number as MLCs. Mr. Rao said he would write a letter to Chief Justice of the High Court with a copy marked to the President appealing against constitution of a collegium to go into promotion of district judges as High Court judges. The process would do injustice to Telangana because most of the district judges were from Seemandhra and they would automatically get selected.
