HYDERABAD: The stage is set for Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s foray into national politics after the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday approved the change of name of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) to Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS). The decision is a major boost for the pink party which is aiming to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the Centre.
Party supremo Chandrasekhar Rao will officially launch the BRS at 1.20 pm today, December 9. He will organise the formation programme of the freshly renamed party. With this, KCR’s efforts to launch a national outfit, which began in June 2022, will take a definite shape today.
The official communique from ECI senior principal secretary KN Bhar addressed to Rao read: “The Election Commission accepted your request for change in the name of your party from Telangana Rashtra Samithi to Bharat Rashtra Samithi. The necessary notification in this regard will be issued in due course”.
TRS leader: Entire nation will soon flourish like TS
Rao will sign the official letter, received from the ECI, at 1.20 pm and send his reply. Later, he will hoist the BRS flag. There will be an inaugural ceremony. The pink party chief has asked the State party executive committee members, party district presidents, ministers, MPs, MLAs and MLCs to attend the inaugural function of BRS to be held at Telangana Bhavan. Along with them, zilla parishad chairpersons, various corporations chairpersons, DCCB presidents, DCMS presidents and district Rythu Bandhu Samithi presidents are also invited to the inaugural function. Welcoming the EC’s decision, TRS senior leader Palla Rajeshwar Reddy said that the Telangana model would be implemented across the country. “Like in Telangana, providing water and power for tillers is the aim of the BRS,” Reddy said. He said that the finer details of the BRS would be announced by Rao at the inaugural function.
Hat-trick win in TS remains main focus
Sources in TRS say that while the party is a household name in the State, the ‘Telangana’ tag is not suitable for a party which has national ambitions. Thus, the TRS replaced Telangana with Bharat. The sources also maintain that though Rao will expand to other states through BRS, his main focus will be to retain power in Telangana for the third consecutive time in the 2023 elections. The newly-anointed BRS will now appoint state incharges. It remains to be seen whether KT Rama Rao, who is currently TRS working president would be made state president of the BRS or not. The services of MP K Keshava Rao would be utilised at the national level, as he has wide political contacts in New Delhi.
The Telangana model
While attempting to dethrone the BJP government at Centre, the BRS will mainly focus on spreading the “Telangana model of development” across the country. The TRS chief has repeatedly stated that Gujarat model was a Golmaal model. The BRS will highlight its schemes like free power for farmers, 24x7 power supply to agriculture, Rythu Bandhu, Kalyana Lakshmi, Aasara pensions, 2BHK housing scheme and others in different states. However, initially, the BRS will focus on neighbouring States like Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra, sources said.
Symbol will stay the same
Rao will hoist the flag of his new party on Friday. However, the colour of the flag of BRS will remain pink. The car will continue to be its party symbol. The Telangana map will be replaced with the India map. The ‘Jai Telangana’ slogan on TRS flag will be replaced with ‘Jai Bharat’.
COINCIDENCE OF DECEMBER 9
December 9 has always been special for the State. While it has assumed significance due to the launch of the BRS on Friday, in 2009, former union minister P Chidambaram had announced the roadmap for the formation of Telangana for the first time. Incidentally, it is also the birthday of former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi