BRS braces up to galvanise party machinery, may ape DMK model

Hyderabad: After the Assembly poll debacle and losing power, BRS chief K Chandrashekar Rao is focusing on strengthening the party by taking up a membership drive and giving proper structure to affiliated units.

According to BRS leaders, KCR could not focus on the party while in power in the last decade. There were no committees; all powers rested with MLAs in the constituency. Though there were district presidents, the main power centre was the local legislator. At some places, the MLAs were made district presidents. With the party losing power and several MLAs getting defeated, there is a vacuum in leadership in districts, felt a senior leader.

According to party sources, the BRS chief has asked senior leaders to start the exercise of enrolling members. The party had earlier taken up a membership drive and claimed to have a strength of 60 lakh members. Generally, the party takes up membership drives after its formation day in April. The party is soon to start the membership drive after the LS poll results are announced on June 4.

A senior leader said KCR would take a call on the party structure. The party is likely to have a State committee and district committees by appointing general secretaries and secretaries, as well as affiliated units like trade unions and other community wings. This will help in strengthening the party, keeping the leaders intact, and avoiding desertions, he said.

In the past, the BRS has tried to study the model of the Dravidian parties like DMK and AIADMK in Tamil Nadu, which have made the national parties look like regional parties in their States. The party leadership had planned to send a team to Chennai to study the organisational structure of the parties, as the BRS leader pointed out that when a couple of leaders came to Hyderabad to seek support of the party for NEET, they said theirs was the fourth generation in the party. The party leadership wanted to see how activists associated themselves with the party for generations, he said.