Amid cheers from Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) party members hailing him as a national leader (‘desh ka neta’), Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao officially announced the name of his now national party – Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS). “The TRS party general body meeting has unanimously resolved to change the name of the party from Telangana Rashtra Samithi to Bharat Rashtra Samithi,” KCR announced amid applause from party workers. The party will now expand its activities nationwide, and accordingly, the constitution of the party will also be amended, KCR announced at the party general body meeting at Telangana Bhavan on the occasion of Dasara, on Wednesday, October 5. The announcement was made at 1.19 pm, which the party said was an “auspicious time”.
The General Secretary of TRS, in a letter to the Election Commission, said that necessary amendments have been made to the party constitution in keeping with the resolution to change the name to Bharat Rashtra Samithi.
Earlier in the day, former Karnataka CM and senior JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy, and president of Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) and MP Thol Thirumavalavan, had arrived in Hyderabad on KCR’s invitation. Thirumavalavan tweeted that he was in Hyderabad on the invitation of KCR for the launch of BRS. He congratulated KCR for his efforts to turn his attention on the national level. The VCK is an ally of the DMK, which is in power in Tamil Nadu.
KCR's move to accelerate his political fight against the BJP coincides with the announcement of schedule for Munugode by-poll in Telangana by the Election Commission. The polling is scheduled to be held on November 3 and votes would be counted on November 6.
In the run-up to the announcement of his national party, Chief Minister KCR had travelled to other states and met other party leaders including NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Uddhav Thackeray, Akhilesh Yadav and Hemant Soren to discuss a national agenda. He had been raising the issue of creating an alternative to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) since as early as 2018, however, there had been no progress on the ground, until recently, when momentum within the TRS regarding the launch of a national party picked up.
With PTI inputs