TRS president wants Kodandaram removed as TJAC chairman

Post-Telangana march, fissures between TRS and Telangana Joint Action Committee (TJAC) have widened so much that TRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao wants the removal of TJAC chairman M. Kodandaram.

Sources said Mr. Rao made no secret of his unhappiness with Mr. Kodandaram at meetings with leaders of CPI-ML (New Democracy) on Thursday and employees’ JAC on Saturday. The leaders of employees’ JAC held prolonged discussions with Mr. Rao at his farmhouse near Gajwel in Medak district where he is camping since two days.

In these meetings, KCR’s thrust was reported to be on replacement of Mr. Kodandaram and how to do it. His choice was said to be JAC convenor K. Swamy Goud. The ultra left wing party insisted that neither Mr. Kodandaram should be relieved of his post nor TRS leave TJAC. Both of them should sit and thrash out their differences. Neither Mr. Kodandaram nor Telangana Gazetted Officers’ Association president V. Srinivas Goud, who are familiar figures wherever TJAC or employees’ leaders met, were present at Saturday’s meeting. The latter is in the eye of a storm, of late, for his remark against TRS MLA T. Harish Rao at the march on Sunday that the legislators were supposed to be in the war zone where security forces burst teargas shells rather than in the rally.

Why is KCR unhappy with Mr. Kodandaram? The question has invited a spontaneous reaction from JAC leaders that the former is unable to stomach the mercurial rise of Mr. Kodandaram as the head of an organisation which was founded by KCR himself.

For record sake, however, KCR referred to the decision of Mr. Kodandaram to stage a sit-in at the march beyond the permitted 7 p.m., which according to the former, was not justified.

Sources added that the huge success of the march in terms of mobilisation of crowd was another factor that put off Mr. Rao. This was the first time that a rally of JAC or TRS was held in his absence.

The differences between Mr. Rao and Mr. Kodandaram have persisted since the by-elections to Mahabubnagar and Parkal Assembly constituencies six months ago. The covert support the TJAC extended to the BJP in Assembly by-election to Mahabubnagar constituency was the trigger. The matters touched a flash point with the defeat of TRS candidate.