Telangana Rashtra Samithi is now officially Bharat Rashtra Samithi

The over two decade old Telangana Rashtra Samithi is now officially Bharat Rashtra Samithi.

In a communication to party supremo and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao on Thursday, the Election Commission of India gave its approval to his proposal to change the name of TRS to "BRS".

The ECI further said that it will issue the necessary notification in due course.

The "Bharat Rashtra Samiti" inaugural ceremony would be held on Friday, to commence its activities.

CMO sources said that KCR will sign on the received ECI letter and send reply at “the auspicious muhurtam of 1.20 pm.”

State party executive committee members, district presidents, ministers, MPs, MLAs, MLCs, Zilla Parishad chairpersons and those of various corporations and other leaders were invited to attend the programme at the party headquarters at Telangana Bhavan in the posh Banjara Hills.

National ambitions

The idea of naming the party as BRS, floated earlier this year, is seen as a reflection of KCR's ambitions to play a “big role” in national politics.

The TRS chief, in his second term as Telangana CM, has been relentlessly attacking PM Narendra Modi and the BJP government at the Centre over political and administrative matters. He had recently even accused the BJP leadership of sending "agents" to buy his MLAs, in order to topple his government.

KCR's idea initially was to float “a federal front,” in association with regional, non-Congress, non-BJP parties. The thought apparently failed to gather traction.

On October 5, on the occasion of Dasara, the party general body met at the TRS headquarters in Hyderabad and unanimously approved KCR's plan to engage in electoral activities in other states. The proposal was then sent to the ECI for its consent.

While some leaders began referring to their party as BRS since then, the slogan “Desh ki neta – KCR '' is also often made by enthusiastic supporters.

However, there is also an apprehension that KCR is risking the party prospects within the state by dropping the emotionally connective “Telangana” word from its identity. TRS was founded by KCR in April 2001 as an “agitation party” with the sole agenda of achieving Telangana statehood.

At present, the TRS's legislative presence and KCR's influence is limited only to Telangana. Months after he managed to retain power in the state in December 2018, his party's Lok Sabha strength dropped to nine from 11 in the 2019 polls. BJP won four out of 17 seats.

In its national forays, BRS, sources say, is eyeing Karnataka and Maharashtra, especially the border areas.

The party which claims to have achieved an all-round development in Telangana by implementing welfare schemes like 'Rythu-bandhu', a crop investment assistance for farmers and 'Dalit-bandhu', a one time grant of Rs 10 lakh per family to establish income generation activities, wants to set a new development agenda for the nation, according to its top leaders.

“Our leader KCR's thinking is that if a new state like Telangana could achieve so much in eight years, solving decades-long drinking water crisis, making farming attractive, then why cannot the rest of the country emulate it, resetting the priorities?” TRS working president K T Rama Rao had earlier told DH.

“We will set an alternative development agenda for the country,” Rao, who is KCR's son and Telangana's IT minister, said.