Demand for changing name of BRS to TRS gaining ground within party

HYDERABAD: Leaders and cadres of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) are of the strong opinion that the party should no longer sport the robes of a national party. Instead, it must revert to its original form of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS).

Soon after the poll debacle in Telangana, the murmurs on this began in a hushed tone. For, they strongly feel that the party lost the polls because it had eschewed its original character of typical “Telangananess” and it had lost the binding force – Telangana cause – after it changed its name to the BRS and the supremo talking national politics.

The review meetings the party had embarked upon not only for preparation for the Lok Sabha elections, but even to dissect the reasons for its defeat in the Assembly elections. The first and foremost reason cited for the electoral loss was ascribed to the change of name of the party and also its approach towards the State. Most second and third rung leaders became vocal about it and expressed their view while working president K T Rama Rao and former Finance Minister T Harish Rao lent patient hearing to the perception that is strongly rooted in the minds of the party activists.

Also Read: Is BRS becoming TRS again to reinforce its firm commitment to Telangana?

Even senior leaders too strongly felt about it. It may be recalled that most leaders were skeptical about the change in name as soon as it was announced. Many senior leaders remained deliberately muted unable to question the decision of K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR, the party supremo. KCR too did not keep quiet. He tried to expand the party unit by conducting public meetings in Maharashtra. He had also appointed a State unit president for the BRS in Andhra Pradesh.

For the first time, Karimnagar contestant on behalf of the BRS Boinapally Vinod Kumar opened up recently in public domain. In the “5 Editors” talk show with journalists in TV9, Vinod Kumar said that 80 per cent of the party cadres strongly desired that the BRS should revert to its original name TRS and continue to fight for Telangana cause.

Asked if the party leadership too was contemplating reverting to the TRS, he gave a tongue-in-cheek reply that the leadership might take a view after the Lok Sabha elections. “The Constitutional provision on such reversion has to be examined and whether it can be done so needs to be explored.”

Upon insisting that TRS could become BRS why not the other way round, he said the party supremo would take a call on that considering all the legal options.

In fact, there is a widespread resentment from among the members of the BRS outside Telangana and senior leaders moved on from the party after the Telangana Assembly elections. For, the BRS could not give them a road map on how to go about.

Against this background, one former MLA took to social media platform “X” and said that he was of the strong personal opinion that the party must change its name to the TRS.

Former Kodad MLA Bollam Mallaiah Yadav said: “In the present situation, to stop the attack of some non-Telangana forces, it is very necessary to change the name from the BRS to the TRS to protect Telangana's self-respect, dialect, language and culture.

“In our state, where integrationists also respected ‘Jai Telangana’ slogan, “it is very sad that in today's regime, if you raise the slogan of ‘Jai Telangana’, you will be beaten with sticks.

The only regional party, the TRS, that was born on the soil of Telangana that could keep the conscience of Telangana than the central parties which are providing governance from Delhi. It’s imperative that the TRS, which brought Telangana by leading the movement and forcing Delhi to grant statehood, should get back to its original form. Time to change to TRS (from BRS) for the sake of Telangana society.”

If the popular perception of the cadres is factored in, KCR may consider the name change sooner than later.