Estranged senior TDP leader Nagam Janardhan Reddy, who quit the party along with three others recently, launched his own outfit Telangana Nagaara Samithi (TNS) from his favourite Umamaheshwaram temple at Atchampet in Mahbubnagar district on Friday.

At the launch of TNS, Nagam said Lord Shiva would be the guiding force for his new outfit which he said was not a political party. "Let me clarify that TNS is not a political party. It's only a platform where all like-minded people fighting for Telangana could come together to achieve the goal," he said. After performing special pujas at the Shiva temple in the morning, he took out a massive rally of his supporters from the temple, which is on the outskirts of Atchampet, to the main town centre. The former TDP minister was accompanied by his friends - MLAs Venugopala Chary, Harishwar Reddy and Jogu Ramanna - who had also quit TDP along with him.

Speaking in the launch function, Nagam said  "I am inviting all the leaders and supporters of the Telangana cause to TNS that would provide a single platform to take the movement forward." He said he would undertake tours of all Telangana districts to mobilise the support of the people for the movement and described TNS as a strong and stable organisation for achieving separate Telangana. He told he was forced to quit TDP because of Chandrababu Naidu's attitude towards Telangana issue. "He has failed to keep his promise and efforts were made to muzzle our voices in the party. That's why we had to come out of TDP," he said.