With an eye on Lok Sabha polls, K Chandrashekar Rao floats national party Bharat Rashtra Samithi

The much talked about “elevation” of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi to Bharat Rashtra Samithi happened on Wednesday, when the party's general body meeting unanimously approved party supremo K Chandrashekar Rao's plan to engage in electoral activities in other states.

Though several TRS leaders are already portraying BRS as a “national party,” technically the change now is only in the name replacing Telangana with Bharat. It however reflects the regional satrap's national ambitions.

“The party General Body Meeting has unanimously resolved to the change of the name from TRS to Bharat Rashtra Samithi, with a view to expand its activities nationwide,” KCR read out a statement at the party headquarters in the posh Banjara Hills of Hyderabad on Wednesday, on the occasion of Dasara.

At the set auspicious muhurtam of 1:19 PM, the resolution was adopted and KCR signed the document, amid chants of “Desh ki neta – KCR '' by his party legislators, ministers and other leaders. Across Telangana, TRS men burst crackers, cut cakes and distributed sweets in celebration.

The name change resolution and the amended party Constitution were sent to New Delhi for the approval of the Election Commission of India.

To attain a national party stature, the BRS has to first win two per cent of Lok Sabha seats i.e., 11 constituencies from three states or more in a general election, or it has to poll six percent of the total valid votes in a Lok Sabha or assembly elections in at least four states while winning four lower house seats. A party recognised as a state party in four states can also be treated as a national party by the ECI.

At present, the TRS's legislative presence and KCR's influence is limited only to Telangana. Though KCR is in his second term as CM, his party's Lok Sabha strength dropped to nine from 11 in the 2019 polls. The TRS chief has been touring the nation since then, targeting PM Narendra Modi and the BJP government. While the idea initially was to float “a federal front,” the BRS talk began earlier this year.

Though KCR has been meeting non-BJP, non-Congress leaders across the country, JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy was the only prominent politician present on the occasion in Hyderabad in a gesture of support for TRS 2.0 “national foray.”

KCR was expected to throw more light on the BRS agenda and the way ahead, but a press conference the CM was expected to address was called off.

The TRS which claims to have achieved an all-round development in Telangana and 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, now 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 KT Rama Rao had told DH.

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