The latest by-election results in Parkal assembly constituency have shocked the Telangana political joint action committee rather than the Telangana Rashtra Samithi itself.

After a lot of dilly dallying in the wake of bitter experience in the Mahbubnagar by-elections, TJAC chairman Prof M Kodandaram said the JAC would take a decision after conducting a survey on the people’s opinion on the candidates. The JAC appointed a sub-committee headed by senior journalist Mallepalli Lakshmaiah, which toured different parts of the constituency to know the people’s pulse.

And the committee finally decided that there was an overwhelming support for the TRS among the people and hence, the JAC would support it.

But the election results took the JAC leaders by surprise. The overwhelming support among the people was not for the TRS, but for YSR Congress party candidate Konda Surekha. But for the last minute cross-voting by the Congress and the BJP cadres, the TRS could have lost the seat with a considerable margin. What is worse, even the Telugu Desam Party managed to get over 30,000 votes ,much more than the votes polled by the Congress party.

Now, what has happened to the TJAC survey? Prof Kodandaram is not in a position to show his face to Telangana Rashtra Samithi president K Chandrasekhara Rao, who is said to be fretting and fuming at the latter for not playing active role in the election campaign for the TRS. Now, the TJAC wants to get out of the political fold and wants to build up its own movement apolitically.