Popular balladeer Ghaddar has made it clear that his proposed political party the Telangana Praja Front was not seeking to be an alternative to the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) but was a platform on which different organisations fighting for Telangana state will be brought together.
Ghaddar, who was busy in last minute consultations with different organisations, ahead of the launch of his new party on Saturday, said, "It is being wrongly projected as an alternative to the TRS. We are convinced that you can not achieve Telangana through elections but only through struggle. We will mobilise the masses for that struggle", he said.
He struck a different note from the earlier statements that the traditional political parties had failed in achieving the goal of Telangana and taking the decades long struggle for separate state to its logical end. "The TRS is a political party and we are a struggle party", he said.
But his move has already created an upheaval in Telangana politics and the Telangana Rashtra Samiti are a worried lot. Even other parties were keeping their fingers crossed as they know that Ghaddar is a popular figure who can attract the masses.
Some leaders in Congress and Telangana were happy that Ghaddar can check the TRS and its maverick leader K Chandrasekhara Rao who riding high after the recent clean sweep of assembly by elections in the region.
Welcoming the entry of Ghaddar on the political scene, a senior Congress legislator Dr P Shankar Rao told reporters in Hyderabad that he had been seriously working and organising people for a long time for Telangana state. "Not only he will split the TRS vote bank but will also attract people from Congress and TDP and other parties", he said.
In a reflection of concern in different quarters that Ghaddar will erode their base in the region, Madiga Reservation Porata Samiti leader Manda Krishna Madiga met the veteran Congress leader G Venkatswamy in Hyderabad to discuss the situation.
A determined Ghaddar has already declared that he will not return home until Telangana state was formed. "When I leave my home on Saturday for the launch of the Praja Front, I will not return till the dream of Telangana state is realised", he said.
TRS leader K Chandrasekhar Rao has so far refrained from commenting on Ghaddar's plans. Ghaddar is the latest addition to the long list of of KCR's erstwhile supporters to leave him and launch their own party.
Senior Congress leader T Jeevan Reddy recalled that in Karimnagar Lok Sabha by elections in the past, Ghaddar had campaigned from KCR and had played a major role in his (Jeevan Reddy's) defeat.
Another friend-turned-foe of KCR, Dileep Kumar is also associated with Ghaddar's efforts to launch the new front.
On the concerns that Ghaddar's party will give a handle to the opponents of Telangana to hype the threat of Maoists taking over the movement, Ghaddar said that it was all a false propaganda. "We are waging a peaceful and democratic struggle. They are trying to use the Maoists' name to scare the people and give a bad name to those fighting for separate state", he said.
