TJS to shore up party; eyes sarpanch polls

​Hyderabad: Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS) is now concentrating on strengthening the party said Prof M Kodandaram here on Wednesday. The party appointed in-charges to different districts and will soon take up the membership drive.

The party will test waters in the coming Sarpanch elections in the State. The party asked the leaders, who are willing to contest Sarpanch elections to make application with the party. The party leaders are preparing an application form, which will be made available on the social media pages of TJS. After an application is made, the party’s scrutiny committee will scrutinise the candidates.

 “Our immediate target is to strengthen the party and contest the gram panchayat elections. There is good response for the party in villages. If anybody is willing to contest, they can contact the district leaders of the party,” said Kodandaram. The party leaders would take up the voter verification process since the last date for the voter verification is May 8, he said. Soon the membership drive would also be taken up by the party, he added. 

M Kodandaram said if the gram panchayats are strengthened, the weaker sections would get more opportunities in politics. He alleged that powers and funds were not transferred to the gram panchayats as per 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments. He said the TJS was for decentralisation of administration on the lines of Kerala where the gram panchayats have been working effectively. The gram panchayat should be a key place in development programmes of the village, he added.  Kodandaram also demanded the government to have separate department for handicapped. He said the handicapped should not be clubbed with the women and child welfare. 

The TJS has supported the demand of government employees to remove Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) and wanted the old pension scheme to continue. The party demanded State government to pass a resolution and send to the Centre stating that the government will not opt the CPS. 

Meanwhile, the party on Wednesday appointed in-charges for various districts including G Ravinder Rao for Asifabad and Mancherial, G Innaiah (Karimnagar, Peddapally, Sircilla and Jagtial), Gopal Sharma (Nizamabad and Kamareddy), R Kanakaiah (Sangareddy and Medak), Bairi Ramesh (Siddipet), Ramesh Reddy and P L Vishweshwar Rao (Hyderabad), Ambati Srinivas (Warangal Urban and Rural, Mahabubabad and Bhoopalapally), Vidyadhar Reddy (Nalgonda), Prabhakar Reddy and B Ramesh (Bhuvanagiri and Jangaon), Srisail Reddy (Vikarabad), Chinta Swamy (Medchal), G Srihari (Adilabad and Nirmal).