Chandrasekhar Rao to unveil his national vision from Khammam on January 18

The Bharat Rashtra Samiti’s (BRS) national-level debut public meeting will take place on Wednesday in a corner of Telangana bordering Andhra Pradesh—Khammam—considered a weak spot for the party since its inception in 2001.

Party supremo K Chandrasekhar Rao, who has rechristened his Telangana Rashtra Samiti as BRS recently, will address a “massive” public gathering just outside Khammam town, where he is expected to unveil his vision for the nation, pushing forward the “Telangana development model”.

The two-time Telangana Chief Minister is also anticipated to launch yet another scathing attack on the Narendra Modi government at the Centre.

On Tuesday, the town was decked up in pink, the BRS colour, with huge banners announcing KCR as the “role model” leader for the country, “capable of replicating his welfare-oriented administration including enhanced pensions, free farm power at the national level”.

KCR’s show of strength rally, for which BRS leaders have targeted a two lakh audience, will be attended by AAP chief and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann, SP leader Akhilesh Yadav, Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan and CPI leader D Raja and others.

The Telangana chief minister, who was earlier touring the country meeting leaders like Trinamool Congress’ Mamata Banerjee, DMK chief M K Stalin, Shiv Sena’s Uddhav Thackeray with his “non-Congress, non-BJP front” idea, hit upon the idea of BRS last year to engage in national politics.

Political observers see Khammam as an “interesting choice” for the launch rally of a party wanting to make a mark on the national political scene.

When KCR revealed the new name of his party in October, he reportedly planned to hold the inaugural rally in New Delhi in December.

“We do not know the exact reason why Khammam was picked,” a BRS leader overseeing arrangements at the rally dais on Tuesday told DH.

Khammam region, close to the border with many Andhra-origin settlers as voters, was not very enthusiastic about the idea of separate state during the KCR led political movement for Telangana formation.

Even after the bifurcation in 2014, the Congress, TDP, YSRCP performed better here but many elected legislators later shifted to the ruling TRS.

“May be KCR wants to send out a message to the Khammam voters by organising the rally here,” the BRS leader says.