Telangana Jana Samithi president Prof M Kodandaram was as popular as Telangana Rashtra Samithi president K Chandrasekhar Rao during the movement for separate Telangana state. In the capacity of Telangana Joint Action Committee chairman, Kodandaram has become a known figure in the entire Telangana.
But the Congress leadership in Delhi seems to have absolutely no clue about his popularity. While Kodandaram thought he could bargain for a good number of seats to the TJS as part of grand alliance, he was shocked when Congress president Rahul Gandhi asked him why he cannot merge his party with the Congress.
“Yours is a fairly new party and does not have enough strength and financial resources. You have got the election symbol only a few days ago and it is not possible to take the symbol into the people within a short time. In any case, there are hardly any leaders in your party. Why don’t you merge your party with Congress and get benefits?” Rahul asked him.
An embarrassed Kodanda said there was no need for any new identity for TJS, as most of the party leaders were known to the people as activists of TJAC.
“We cannot merge the party with the Congress but will maintain our own identity,” he said.
Rahul then asked Kodandaram to contest the elections on Congress symbol at least, but the latter rejected the proposal.
He, however, agreed to consider the request of Rahul to keep away from contesting the elections and confine himself to campaigning.
After the meeting Rahul Gandhi, the TJS founder was back in city to resolve the issue on number of seats. A clarity on number of seats to be allocated to the TJS will come only after the leaders of Maha Kootami conclude their meeting on Saturday.
