The Election Commission (EC) has refused to register Telangana Rakshana Sena (TRS), a regional party floated by former legislative council member Kalvakuntla Kavitha in view of numerous objections received from members of the public and various stakeholders, people familiar with the matter said on Saturday.
A party functionary said the EC had sent a communication to this effect to Kavitha earlier this week, to which the former MLC replied with a disagreement, stating that the party registration cannot be denied based on objections raised in letters.
The ECI said the proposed name of her party TRS cannot be approved due to objections and claims received in over 1,100 letters from various parties and individuals, directing her to submit three alternative names for the party within 15 days, otherwise the application will be treated as closed.
Over 1,100 objections, two formal challenges
A party functionary said after Kavitha applied for the registration, there were two primary objections — one from Telangana Rajya Samithi, registered by a Siddipet-based political outfit and another from Telangana Rashtra Samajika Sena, a socio-political group based out of Solapur in Maharashtra.
“Both the outfits wanted Telangana Rakshana Sena using the abbreviation TRS will affect their respective political interests. Reacting to these objections, Kavitha submitted legally valid explanations. She said these two political outfits had not contested any elections after 2023; so, there is no way our party will affect their political interests,” the party leader said.
{{/usCountry}}“Both the outfits wanted Telangana Rakshana Sena using the abbreviation TRS will affect their respective political interests. Reacting to these objections, Kavitha submitted legally valid explanations. She said these two political outfits had not contested any elections after 2023; so, there is no way our party will affect their political interests,” the party leader said.
{{/usCountry}}He said Kavitha had replied to the EC communique, stating that her party registration as TRS cannot be rejected just based on letters written by individuals. “Let EC forward all the objections to us and we shall reply to each of them, as we had done in the case of two parties earlier,” he said.
The party functionary said Kavitha was prepared to challenge the Election Commission’s decision before higher courts if necessary and would pursue all available legal remedies.
Kavitha had announced the launch of her new political party Telangana Rakshana Sena (TRS) at a huge public rally on the outskirts of Hyderabad on April 25. Apparently, she wants to take advantage of the name TRS, which resembles Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), which was originally founded by her father K Chandrashekar Rao in 2001.
KCR had spearheaded the movement for separate Telangana state under the banner of TRS and won the elections twice in 2014 and 2018. In October 2022, he renamed the TRS as Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) as part of his plans to expand the party across the country.
“Kavitha deliberately chose the name Telangana Rakshana Sena so that its abbreviated form would once again become TRS, seeking to revive the emotional connect associated with the original TRS brand among grassroots workers and rural voters,” political analyst Srinivasa Rao Manchala said.
However, the BRS argued that allowing a new political party to use an abbreviation closely resembling that of a well-known existing or former political party could create confusion among voters.
“The ECI should wait at least 10 years before granting party title, including its acronym, to anyone. The ECI has already barred the use of names that are identical and closely resemble those of national and regional parties,” a BRS leader who refused to be quoted, said.