Clamour grows within BRS to change party name back to TRS

After a resounding defeat in the Telangana assembly elections, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) president and former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, popularly known as KCR, has been facing internal pressure to revert the party to its original avatar, Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS).

According to a senior BRS leader, several party leaders and cadres at the grassroots level have requested the state leadership to change the name from BRS back to TRS, in a bid to regain the party’s original Telangana identity.

The matter has also been coming up during meetings being conducted by BRS working president K T Rama Rao (KTR) and former minister T Harish Rao, to introspect on the party’s performance in the assembly elections and gear up the cadre for the Lok Sabha polls.

“Yes, there has been an increasing demand from party leaders across various districts to change the party’s name back to TRS. The party leadership has been apprised of the sentiment of the party leaders,” former minister and senior BRS lawmaker from Station Ghanpur constituency, Kadiyam Srihari, told HT.

Srihari was among party leaders who raised the matter before KTR during the Warangal meeting on Wednesday and said the party has been the only voice of the people of Telangana for the last 23 years and one cannot isolate the BRS from the state.

“Only BRS can effectively represent the issues of Telangana, as no other party is sentimentally attached to the state,” the former minister said.

The BRS lost the Telangana assembly elections on November 30 after it secured only 39 out of 119 seats, due to strong anti-incumbency wave, coupled with allegations of family rule and corruption.

Party leaders believe the BRS had lost its right over Telangana after the party – which was primarily formed to fight for the formation of a separate Telangana state out of undivided Andhra Pradesh – changed its name on October 5, 2022. The name change to BRS, with an aim to establish KCR as a national leader, was facilitated through a resolution that was passed at the party’s general body meeting that day.

On December 8, 2022, the Election Commission of India approved the name change, leading the former chief minister to begin expanding the party’s electoral footprint beyond Telangana, to states like Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and even Delhi.

Srihari said that many party leaders are of the view that the BRS lost its connection with Telangana once it projected itself as a national party. “That had an impact on the party prospects in the recent assembly elections and it could not invoke the Telangana sentiment as it had done in the past. The party lost its connection with the Telangana people,” he said.

The BRS lawmaker said it should not be difficult for KCR to retain the party’s original name. “So far, the Election Commission of India has not registered any other party in the name of TRS. So, if we submit a representation to the ECI for change of name of the party back to TRS, it can do it within a few weeks,” he said.

Political analyst S A Zakir called the name change to BRS a “historic blunder”. “He (KCR) tried to create an impression that his government has done enough for Telangana and it was time he moved to national politics,” he said.

Zakir said KCR ignored the simple logic that people had earlier voted for him only because of his Telangana identity, as he had played a significant role in attaining statehood for the region in 2014. “But he took the people of Telangana for granted. He thought that they would vote for his party permanently and continue to elect him and his family members for several terms,” he said.

He said that after being called “Telangana Bapu” (father of Telangana), KCR wanted to emerge as “Desh ki Neta” (leader of the nation). “But in the recent elections, the people showed him his place and stature. So, it is better he confines himself to Telangana and rebuild the party,” Zakir said.

Besides the party’s name change, another issue that is likely to be taken up during the upcoming BRS meeting is an alleged lack of organisational structure in the party. Unlike other parties, the BRS doesn’t have any units from the village level to the state level. There are no presidents, vice-presidents, general secretaries, organising secretaries or even spokespersons.

“It was KCR and his family members who have been running the party as a family enterprise. This has to change and in the coming days, it has to grow into a more democratic outfit,” Zakir said.