Team News Riveting
Hyderabad, October 5
The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), founded by Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao, has been renamed Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) in an overt signal that state’s ruling party is aiming to increase its footprint nationally.
The General Body meeting of the party at Telangana Bhawan in Hyderabad today took the decision in this connection. It was announced in the presence of special invitees, including former Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy, by TRS chief and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR).
KCR also circulated a letter that has been sent to the Election Commission of India (ECI) informing it of the development. The party has chosen the occasion of Dusshera, which it considered auspicious for the new inning, to announce the fresh name of the party.
Several political leaders from Karnataka, West Bengal and other states were invited as special guests to garner support to BRS, which is likely to project itself as an anti-BJP front at the national level.
The development drew sharp reactions from the BJP as its state president Bandi Sanjay Kumar said that renaming the party was like “putting lipstick on a pig”. BJP MLA Eatala Rajender said that with the announcement of the BRS, Telangana’s bond with KCR was severed.
“The movement for a separate Telangana state was slandered and the activists were forgotten. With the establishment of the national party, Telangana’s relationship with KCR is completely severed. He dreams of running politics in the country with illegally-earned money. It remains to be seen whether it will remain a dream,” Rajender added.
