KEY PLAYERS

Some political leaders over the years have breathed life into a waning Telangana movement and others have spearheaded a massive campaign to draw the attention of the world towards a struggle that has spanned over several decades.TOI takes a look at the contribution of some of the key players,whose role at various points finally paved the way for Telangana  KALVAKUNTLA CHANDRASEKHAR RAO (59) TRS president KCR is credited with breathing life back into Telangana movement after 30 years in 2000.As the dynamics of state politics changed after YSRs death in September 2009,KCR launched his fast unto death in November 2008 to press for separate state.It fast culminated into the then Union Home minister P Chidambaram announcing that the Centre would initiate the process of carving out Telangana out of AP,on December 9 2009,before backtracking again.But KCR took the issue up on 23 December 2009,and launched Telangana Political Joint Action Committee (TJAC),which later saw pro-Telangana parties like TRS,BJP and New Democracy becoming constituent members.A wily politician,KCR,was able to split Congress and pulled out a couple of MPs to his side while offering a merger of TRS with the grand old party M KODANDARAM (59) A political science professor,M Kodandaram,with a background of civil liberties movement is a proponent of Telangana.Apart from being the academic face of T movement,he gave the much-needed traction by leading movements like Sakalajanula Samme and Million March for T.Playing the role of binding factor between the self-centered political parties like TRS and BJP,Kodandaram,a JNU product has been credited with making the Telangana voice heard in Delhi S JAIPAL REDDY (71) Union Minister S Jaipal Reddy,who has been the man behind the scene on Telangana,a seasoned politician and real mentor for T Congress leaders,went vocal from the beginning.While his camp members,including K Jana Reddy and Ponnala Lakshmiah held the T flag high,Jaipal earned ire of the Congress high command for allegedly fanning trouble,when all partymen were asked to remain mum on T.His ego clash with CM Kiran Kumar Reddy even cost him his petroleum portfolio and was shifted to science and technology portfolio K KESHAVA RAO (75) Former PCC president K Keshava Rao,angered over denial of RS seat in 2012,fanned T sentiments,quit Congress and lured two party MPs to TRS in June this year.This is seen as one of the main factors that forced Congress to hasten decision on T D SRINIVAS (64) Seen to be close to Sonia Gandhi,former PCC chief D Srinivas pulled the strings in Congress and was instrumental in organizing a mammoth rally at Nizam College Grounds on June 30 which not only showed Cong strength in Telangana region,but also convinced the Congress high command on the importance of the issue K JANA REDDY (67) Senior most in Kiran Kumar cabinet,Jana Reddy is credited to have lent a mature leadership to T Congressmen who were otherwise restive with party being unsure on statehood issue.His organisational skills earned accolades during the Nizam College rally,while his diplomacy appears to have moved party high command to finally take a call on Telangana C DAMODAR RAJANARASIMHA (54) Deputy CM C Damodar Rajanarasimha was the one who represented Telangana in Congress Core Committee meet on July 12,and is credited to have pitched for the separate state as against the powerful arguments in favour of the united AP put forth by CM Kiran Reddy and PCC chief Botsa Satyanarayana.While CMs attractive financial package for T and a roadmap to keep state united appeared to have almost convinced party leaders,it was the Damodars 11-page report that is believed to have convinced Sonia to take a decision in favour of T G KISHAN REDDY (49) State BJP chief G Kishan Reddy contributed his bit to T movement by his protests.He launched the Telangana Poru Yatra earlier this year,and travelled across the region to mobilize masses,launched fasts in Hyderabad and Delhi to draw nations attention K NARAYANA ( 87) CPI state secretary K Narayana launched protests tours across Telangana earlier this year.Keeping equal distance from TRS and BJP,CPI contributed in its own way to T movement

(Source-toi)