Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao on a national mission for ‘BJP-mukt Bharat’

Seeking to expand its electoral footprint beyond Telangana the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi TRS on Wednesday changed its name to Bharat Rashtra Samithi BRS with Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao eyeing a national role ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha pollsHeralding the partys foray into national politics more than 21 years after it was launched with the objective of carving out a separate Telangana from the state of Andhra Pradesh the TRS adopted a unanimous resolution at its general body meeting rechristening it as BRSWith this move the TRS hopes to take on the BJP and emerge as a national force to reckon with by bringing together likeminded opposition partiesIt comes months after the TRS at its foundation day event in April this year said in a resolution that the party should play a key role in national politics in the interest of the country as the BJP is exploiting communal sentiments for its political convenienceAlso read Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao on a national mission for lsquoBJPmukt BharatrsquoIn the presence of JDS leader and former Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy and Tamil Nadus Viduthalai Chiruthaigal KatchiVCK leader Thol Thirumavalavan Chief Minister Rao who is also the TRS president proposed the name change resolution The resolution was unanimously passed at the meeting held in HyderabadThe announcement of the name change by the 68yearold TRS president was greeted by party functionaries with a big round of applause amid chants of KCR Zindabad and TRS Zindabad The change of name is to expand the partys activities nationwide and the partys constitution is also amended accordingly Rao saidThe TRS rank and file who gathered outside the Telangana Bhavan the TRS headquarters here went ecstatic and burst crackers and distributed sweets soon after the announcementDesh ke neta KCR chants reverberated and similar slogans were seen in posters Desh ke neta KCR Dear India he is coming and KCR is on the way were among the slogans prominently displayed in banners that could be seen in and around the venue of the meet besides other locations in the cityRao who has been very critical of the BJP for about a year is expected to step up his attack against the saffron party and its government at the Centre in the coming monthsSignificantly the name change move comes ahead of the Assembly polls in Telangana next year and the general elections a year laterSpeaking to reporters after the renaming event Telangana Minister E Dayakar Rao said the chief ministers idea is to take the party to the national level while the symbol and colour of TRS will remain the sameAnother minister Satyavathi Rathod said the welfare schemes that are implemented in Telangana would be replicated all over the countryIn the recent past KCR has met several regional party leaders including JDS chief and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda NCPrsquos Sharad Pawar TMCrsquos Mamata Banerjee AAPrsquos Arvind Kejriwal and others and has been rooting for a nonBJP nonCongress alliance However most of these parties have maintained there cannot be any united opposition without the Congress as it may end up only helping BJPThe BRS is expected to showcase the welfare programmes being implemented in Telangana like Rythu Bandhu investment support schemes for farmers and Dalit Bandhu grant of Rs 10 lakh per household to DalitsFarmersrsquo issues such as free power are likely to be the focal points in BRS agenda if one goes by the previous statements made by Chief Minister RaoRao has held several rounds of meetings with representatives of farmers unions from various states here A resolution seeking to constitute a National Farmers United Forum to ensure the implementation of Telangana governments farmer welfare schemes in the country was also adoptedHe had earlier promised to supply free power to farmers across the country if a nonBJP government is voted to power in the 2024 Lok Sabha electionsThe change of name by the TRS was welcomed by Asaduddin Owaisis All India MajliseIttehadul Muslimeen AIMIM with which it has a friendly tieup while the opposition BJP and Congress dismissed the move as a nonstarterTelangana PCC President Revanth Reddy alleged Rao has killed the existence of Telangana and renaming the party is to settle family disputes and fulfill political greedTelangana BJP chief spokesperson K Krishna Sagar Rao dubbed the chief ministers national political entry plan a ldquomisadventurismrdquoWhile KCR struggled to keep his government operational financially the national level expansion bid is an unworthy exercisehe saidKCRs move to step up his political fight against the BJP coincides with the announcement of schedule for the Munugode Assembly bypoll in Telangana by the Election Commission The polling is scheduled to be held on November 3 and votes would be counted on November 6In 2020 the BJP emerged as a force to reckon with in Hyderabad civic polls The BJP leaders have been vigorously focusing on Telangana as part of the partys efforts to expand its footprint in the southern parts of the countryThe TRS was founded by KCR on April 27 2001 TRS is in power in Telangana since 2014 when the new state was carved out of Andhra PradeshParty sources said the TRS name change would be communicated to the Election Commission as per rulesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever