HYDERABAD: Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is likely to test the waters in the ensuing Assembly elections in Gujarat by fielding candidates in three constituencies - Surat, Navsari and Choryasi - as he is expecting the Election Commission of India to issue orders renaming TRS as BRS within the next one week or 10 days.
TRS insiders say that the party expects the ECI to soon issue orders regarding the change of name and once it is done, the BRS would begin expanding in other states. To begin with, the BRS would test its luck in the three constituencies in Gujarat where there is a significant population of Telangana people who had settled there.
Once the name change –– from TRS to BRS –– is formally effected in the records of the ECI, KCR is planning to send a team to Gujarat to study the demographic profile of the three Assembly constituencies and submit a report. As most of the people of Telangana- origin live in these three constituencies in Gujarat, the TRS leadership is doing groundwork by interacting with leaders interested in contesting on behalf of the BRS.
A senior MLA said that KCR is focusing on Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Bihar from where he might contest for Lok Sabha in the next election. He is understood to have told the party senior leaders that the BRS would contest more than 50 Lok Sabha seats across the country. TRS sources said that once TRS becomes BRS, the Chief Minister might conduct an executive committee meeting where he would explain the agenda of the new party.
GROUNDWORK BEGINS
A senior leader of the party, on condition of anonymity, said that the TRS supremo was doing some groundwork for expanding the BRS footprint and might soon appoint state-level leaders to take up the responsibility of strengthening the party outside Telangana.