TRS, TJAC plan to stall Rayala-T proposal

TJAC leaders leave for Delhi to mobilise support against the proposal; TRS gets in touch with BJP

Telangana Joint Action Committee chairman Prof M. Kodandaram along with other leaders leaving for New Delhi by train on Sunday. Photo: Special Arrangement

Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and Telangana Joint Action Committee (TJAC), which have been spearheading the movement for separate State, are chalking out a strategy to oppose the Centre’s move on Rayala-Telangana as the Group of Ministers (GoM) prepares to submit its report to the Union Cabinet tomorrow.

Senior TRS leaders are suspecting the role of a section of Coastal Andhra leaders behind reviving the Rayala-Telangana issue, essentially to stall statehood to Telangana.

“Irrespective of what we say in public, the Congress leadership knows very well that we are ready for merger with them once the Telangana Bill is passed. However, the Rayala-Telangana is part of a conspiracy by Coastal Andhra as they know that many parties won’t support such an idea,” a senior TRS leader told

The Hindu on Sunday.

The TRS leaders also perceive that the move was aimed at solving the capital city problem for the residuary Andhra Pradesh as Kurnool would not be in contention if it was merged with Telangana along with Anantapur. The Coastal Andhra leaders were strongly opposed to idea of their capital in another region as had happened when Andhra was separated from erstwhile composite Madras State, they said.

The TRS leadership was already on a mission to oppose the move by getting in touch with the national leaderships of BJP and other parties with a plea to nip the idea in the bud.

They would be left with no option but to take to streets again for Telangana, if the Centre fails to heed to their requests, the TRS sources said.

Meanwhile, a delegation of TJAC led by its chairman M. Kodandaram left for Delhi on Sunday on a mission to meet leaderships of all parties which supported Telangana in the past and to oppose the Centre’s move on Rayala-Telangana. All top leaders of the body will camp in the national capital for a week or 10 days.

Speaking to reporters before leaving for Delhi, Prof. Kodandaram said the new proposal would create unrest not only in Telangana but Rayalaseema too. They would agitate again for Telangana with 10 districts and Hyderabad as its capital if the Centre decides to do another experiment, he maintained.