When Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) hopes to transform itself into Bharatiya Rashtra Samiti (BRS), what should one expect to see?
It’s been 21 years since the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) was born. And now the party chief and Telangana state Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, or KCR as he is known as, wants to take the party beyond the state’s borders to be a national player. It looks like KCR believes that the time has come for TRS to play a major part in shaping the nation’s future.
He even told party workers at a Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) plenary organised in Hyderabad recently that some of the legislators from the party are keen on seeing TRS transform itself into BRS – or, Bharatiya Rashtra Samiti.
The intention is clear. KCR and his party wants a pie in the national political arena, and the confidence that they could do it better than many others in the fray could be seen as growing every passing day. When KCR voiced spoke about TRS wanting to BRS, the party leaders numbering around 3000 who were present at the party plenary cheered, applauded and have begun nursing dreams of being part of a national player.
TRS chief and his national dream
The move needs to be seen in the backdrop of KCR’s earlier statements that he would want to play a role in national politics. The plenary had pushed this forward with a resolution that stated the party chief’s dream of being a national figure. Not just that, the move to go national has already been kick-started much earlier. KCR announced that the TRS has already acquired land in the national capital and is constructing a party office there.
That would bring s to the question as to whether KCR is still keen on being part of a larger anti-BJP front which many leaders of various parties are trying to put together. The 2024 Lock Sabha polls are a stone’s throw away, and the non-BJP outfits would want to speed up their goal of making possible a front that would take on PM Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The plans are afoot, though not much results have been forthcoming.
KCR wants a people’s agenda and not a political front
So does KCR want himself to be part of the seemingly upcoming anti-BJP front? The plenary had an answer to that query too. KCR swept aside the idea of political fronts, and hinted that he wasn’t very keen as many efforts earlier to form a political front had failed. What he looks forward to is creating People’s Front with a common agenda, new integrated agricultural and industrial policy, a report quoted him as saying.
To him, the idea of a few Chief Ministers coming together and talking of forming a political front has lost appeal. Instead, what he looked forward to is setting together a people’s agenda and working towards it.
Whatever he means by that, it looks like TRS will work towards a national goal as a national party from the south. It remains to be seen what kind of roadmap would be laid out for the party to progress on its agenda.
