Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Oct 5: Aspiring to foray into national politics, Telangana regional ruling party the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) on Wednesday rechristened itself as “Bharat Rashtra Samithi” (BRS) to step outside the state’s boundaries.
The Telangana chief minister and the chief of the TRS, K Chandrasekhar Rao, who is hoping for a national role for himself ahead of the 2024 Parliamentary elections, announced the renaming of his regional party launched in 2001 to spearhead the agitation demanding a separate state of Telangana to be carved out of the then undivided Andhra Pradesh.
A resolution to this effect was passed at the party’s general body meeting here, party sources said. Party president and Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao read out the resolution and announced that the party’s general body meet unanimously resolved to change the name from TRS to BRS.
“The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) is now BRS,” Mr Rao declared after a meeting of his party general body which he said had unanimously approved the name change to usher into national politics. The party workers and supporters celebrated the occasion on the auspicious Dussehra day by bursting crackers and splashing the party’s colour pink on the city of Hyderabad.
The “name-change” has been conveyed to the Election Commission, which has rules for recognising any party as national, a TRS spokesman said. As per the guiding rules, a new party to be recognised as a national party must be recognised as a state party in at least four states or has to have won six per cent of the votes in any four states and four Lok Sabha seats. Or the party must win two per cent Lok Sabha seats (11 seats) in at least three states. For now, the TRS only has a strong presence in Telangana, which it rules.
Mr Rao has made it clear that he intends to take on the BJP and challenge Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2024. In the past year, he has vastly escalated his rhetoric against the BJP, skipping Modi’s events and not even receiving him at the airport on his visits.
In the build-up to his re-launch, Mr Rao, popularly known as KCR, met with several political leaders including his counterparts in other states – Mamata Banerjee (Bengal), Nitish Kumar (Bihar), Arvind Kejriwal (Delhi), MK Stalin (Tamil Nadu), Pinarayi Vijayan (Kerala) and Naveen Patnaik (Odisha). The former Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy and DMK ally Thol Thirumavalavan attended Wednesday’s re-launch of the party.
But unlike in 2018, KCR says he is not trying to bring regional parties together in a federal front. Instead, he wants to present an alternative welfare, development and political agenda to the people, he says. So KCR has reached out to farmers’ bodies, trade unions and civil society groups for an alliance that would reflect the aspirations of different sections of the society.
“KCR will be the catalyst bringing parties under one platform…His plan is not to become PM but to bring an alternative model of development,” TRS MP KR Suresh Reddy said. He rejected suggestions that KCR’s party could end up helping the BJP by dividing opposition votes. “It is a mistake to say BRS will tacitly help the BJP. KCR has a national appeal,” Mr Reddy said.
KCR’s party men say he wants to present what he calls the Telangana model and showcase it to the rest of the country, with the promise to replicate his government’s welfare schemes, development programs and policies.
KCR plans to address a rally in Delhi on December 9 the day the then Congress government at the centre announced a separate Telangana state in 2009.
The renamed party may face its first election soon, in Telangana’s Munugode bypoll, expected on November 4. But that election will have to be still fought under the name of TRS, as the Election Commission’s endorsement is expected to take some time.
The party is also likely to contest assembly elections in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Delhi. The BRS plans to retain its election symbol – the car – and also its pink colour, but it is still a long way from officially becoming a national party.
KCR has told party leaders they must tour different states to talk about the welfare schemes in Telangana over the last eight years in order to amplify the political influence of the party. He plans to tour extensively and has reportedly bought a 12-seater aircraft for the purpose.
Mr. Rao informed his Cabinet colleagues on Sunday that his tours to other States had evoked a lot of interest in local population. They were eager to see replication of welfare schemes in Telangana like Rythu Bandhu and 24-hour power to agriculture in their own States. That will in no way undermine implementation of schemes in Telangana.
The Telangana Rashtra Samithi was founded on April 27, 2001, by KCR seeking a separate state opining that people living in Telangana region were being categorically discriminated against within the undivided state of Andhra Pradesh.
In the first assembly election held soon after the formation of Telangana, TRS, helmed by KCR, emerged as the single largest party winning 63 seats in the 119-member House.
Before the launch of BRS, KCR met several national leaders, belonging to various political parties, in the past few months, calling for Opposition unity.
According to sources, the party would field candidates in the 2024 Lok Sabha election from several states. KCR is said to be keen on preparing a plan of action for the welfare and upliftment of the farming community and comprehensive roadmaps for Dalits and for promoting communal harmony and tolerance in the country.
