Grassroot level cadres belonging to the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) have demanded that the party’s name be changed back to Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) to retain the party’s original identity.
The demand comes a month after the BRS lost the state Assembly elections after running the government for two consecutive terms. However, sources from the state leadership of the BRS clarified that they have no plans to change back to the old name.
The issue reportedly came up when state-level leaders, including party working president KT Rama Rao (KTR) and former Finance Minister Harish Rao, held meetings to seek feedback from the cadre. The feedback is an attempt by the party to understand their loss in the Assembly elections as they prepare for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
According to local reports, Ghanpur Station MLA Kadiyam Srihari also proposed reverting to TRS as the current name does not reflect the party sentiment. In October 2022, BRS chief and former Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) requested the party’s name be changed and the Election Commission approved the request shortly after.
The party was renamed in keeping with former CM KCR’s ambitions to foray into national politics. Shortly after the name change, banners of ‘KCR is on the way’ and ‘Desh ka neta KCR’ were set up across Hyderabad. KCR then started campaigning in the neighbouring state of Maharashtra and building alliances with regional parties against the Union government led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).