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KCR to announce launch of national party in July: TRS
For the last two days, KCR has been holding hectic deliberations with his senior party colleagues, ministers and close confidants over the modalities to float the national party, which has been tentatively named “Bharat Rashtriya Samithi” (BRS), the TRS leader said.
Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) president and state chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) is set to float a new political party at the national level to fulfil his ambition of playing a key role in the national politics and bring about a change in the country’s governance, a party leader privy to developments said on Monday.
For the last two days, KCR has been holding hectic deliberations with his senior party colleagues, ministers and close confidants over the modalities to float the national party, which has been tentatively named “Bharat Rashtriya Samithi” (BRS), the leader said.
Popular political strategist Prashant Kishore has been part of the discussions being held by the chief minister for two days on Saturday and Sunday. The Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC), founded by him, has been hired by the TRS for the next year’s assembly elections,
“He (Kishor) is playing a key role in the formation of the national party,” the TRS leader quoted above said.
Former Andhra Pradesh MP Vundavalli Arun Kumar was also part of the discussions held by KCR at his Pragati Bhavan residence on Sunday, the leader added.
The TRS state executive meeting scheduled to be held in Telangana Bhavan on June 19 (Sunday) is expected to adopt a resolution on the formation of the BRS. “An announcement will be made by the chief minister himself about his national mission,” the party leader said.
The new party would be formally launched in the last week of June in New Delhi, where the TRS has already started constructing a new office complex. “Soon after the meeting, the party leadership would commence the process for registration of the party with the Election Commission of India,” he said.
However, there is no clarity from the party yet as to whether the chief minister would retain the TRS and float a separate party in the name of BRS; or disband the TRS and make it part of the BRS. “Once there is clarity in this regard, the party might request the ECI to allot “car” as the common symbol for the BRS,” the party leader said.
The chief minister has been talking about entering national politics at the public meetings and party forums for quite some time. At the TRS plenary held in Hyderabad on April 27, KCR even indicated that the name of the national party could be BRS.
The plenary also passed a resolution asking KCR to play a key role in national politics. He said he was no more interested in floating fronts or coalitions to pull down somebody from power “and install Tom, Dick or Harry as the Prime Minister”.
“What is required now is an alternative agenda for the people, a new integrated agricultural policy, a new economic policy and a new industrial policy,” he said at the plenary.
Though the TRS supremo has not yet made any official announcement on the launch of a national party, the party leaders are euphoric over the development. “Desh ki or Ka? Neta KCR” posters have already come up in different parts of Hyderabad in the last two days.
“All the major political parties in the country have failed to emerge as an effective opposition to counter the Bharatiya Janata Party. Now, people are looking up to KCR as the only leader with guts who is taking on the mighty BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” said senior TRS leader and state civil supplies minister Gangula Kamalakar on Monday.
Another senior leader and state panchayat raj minister Errabelli Dayakar Rao said Telangana showed a new direction to the entire country in the implementation of developmental programmes and welfare schemes. “The nation wants KCR to lead the country, and if he rises to the highest level in the country, the entire country will develop like Telangana,” he said.
The party’s NRI wing also conducted a zoom conference with the party cadre across the globe on Sunday night. The participants, who extended support to KCR’s plans to float a national party, felt that the nation needed his leadership for qualitative change in national politics, TRS NRI wing coordinator Mahesh Bigala said.
The opposition parties have taken the proposed plan of KCR to launch a national party with a pinch of salt. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state president Bandi Sanjay said it was ridiculous on the part of KCR to dream of playing a big role in national politics as he had proved a big failure in Telangana.
“KCR is playing a drama to divert the people’s attention from his failures in the state. But the people know his game plan, and they have already made up their mind to pull him down from power,” Sanjay said.
Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president A Revanth Reddy said nobody was taking KCR’s BRS plans seriously. “The people have already decided to offer VRS (voluntary retirement scheme) to the TRS. How can KCR, whose party doesn’t even have 10 MPs, dream of becoming the Prime Minister?” he asked.
Describing KCR as an outdated medicine, Reddy said there were no takers for him in other parts of the country. “He is trying to establish his identity at the national level, at a time when other opposition parties are planning to field a common candidate in the Presidential elections,” he said.
