Hyderabad, April 29: The ninth foundation day of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) has given out a call to the party cadre to prepare for a long-drawn struggle to achieve Telangana and said that unless the party was strong organisationally and politically, it would not be able to influence the decision-makers in Delhi in favour of Telangana.
TRS chief K Chandrasekhara Rao, who spoke at the end of the day-long deliberations, declared that the TRS would not contest the Nizamabad Assembly byelection since it was vacated by the BJP MLA in support of Telangana cause. He appealed to the cadres and the people to elect only those in the remaining 11 Assembly seats who had resigned and not others.
“The TRS would contest all the 10 seats vacated by its MLAs,’’ he said, adding that it was necessary to contest the byelections since the TRS should remain a political heavyweight.
Rao also made it clear that the TRS would not have any electoral alliances with anyone in future since all the parties with whom it had truck earlier had come out in their true colours. The TRS would not merge in any party as is being propagated, Rao said.
The foundation day, held at Imperial Gardens in Secunderabad, which has been named after Srikantha Chary, who sacrificed his life for Telangana cause, was attended by about 5,000 delegates from all across the Telangana belt where as many as 23 resolutions were adopted.
The speakers included TRS MP Vijayashanthi, party ideologue Jayashankar, JAC convenor Prof M Kodandaram and singer Desapthi Srinivas.
Chandrasekhara Rao dwelt at length on the need to strengthen the party from grassroot level and said an action plan would be finalised at the next Politburo meeting. “I myself would tour all the districts in Telangana and interact with people. The tempo of Telangana movement should be continued in such a way that it is felt by everyone everyday,’’ he said, adding that it was not advisable to take the movement forward with 2,000 volts charge as there is always the possibility of the movement crashing with equal force.
“I want TRS to become an effective political alternative to the Congress after formation of Telangana state,’’ he said.
He said the only party that cared for Telangana movement was the TRS as it has now become clear that the TDP was never serious about separate state.
These days nobody in the TDP was discussing Telangana movmenet. Similarly, the CPM too has bared itself by coming out openly against separate state before the Justice BN Srikrishna Committee, Rao said. He was critical of the state government for arresting the TRS workers for cornering the people’s representatives during Prajapatham programme.
Prof Jaya Shankar, speaking at the inaugural in the morning, said if the Centre does not deliver Telangana even after the recommendations of the Srikrishna panel, the only option left would be to carry on the movement.
–Agencies