HYDERABAD: What’s in a name? Everything. If one goes by the BRS cadre and some of its leaders.They are of the view that as Telangana is missing from the pink party’s name, it is also missing the sentiment based on which it captured power twice in the state.They now want the leadership to change the party’s name from Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) to Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) again. They also think that the BRS is not a catchy name.
During a Lok Sabha poll preparatory meeting for Warangal segment, senior leader and Station Ghanpur MLA Kadiyam Srihari proposed that the party’s name be changed back to TRS.“We have been receiving suggestions from the party workers to change the name back to TRS. Hence, I have proposed in the meeting to change the party name,” Srihari told TNIE on Thursday.“BRS is not a catchy name. It doesn’t reflect the Telangana sentiment,” he added.But it remains to be seen how the BRS supremo and former Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao responds to this proposal.
It may be mentioned here that the leadership changed the party name from TRS to BRS on October 5, 2022 with an aim to grab the national attention.If Telangana is in the party’s name, the party could not foray into the national politics. So the party replaced the Telangana with Bharat. The BRS was unable to expand the party to other states over the last one year. Though some leaders from Maharashtra joined the BRS and the party also appointed the state president for AP unit, there was not much progress. The attempts of the party to expand the base in Odisha too failed.
In addition to this, the BRS lost in the Assembly elections held in December, 2023. After the rout in the Assembly polls, the BRS is now focusing all its energies to strengthen the party in the state rather than focusing on national politics.“The people used to call TRS a Telangana party in the past. Now, with the removal of the Telangana from the party name, we are now missing that sentiment,” a senior leader of the party said.