Eyeing a larger pie at national level

Is the TRS makeover well-planned and a meticulous one with a pragmatic futuristic vision? At least, the Chief Minister of Telangana, K Chandrashekar Rao, believes in it. How and when it does assume the new nomenclature – BRS (Bharat Rashtra Samiti) – is to be seen. The TRS at its general body meeting has passed a resolution to change the name of the party to Bharat Rashtra Samithi and has already communicated the same, both the resolution and the amended party constitution, to the Election Commission of India.

The Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act 1951 allows a political party to amend or change its name. Only, the name should be independent of the existing ones without impacting the latter in any way. Some political parties have done this in the past like the Trinamool Congress which simply preferred a prefix of 'All India" to it. There are eight national parties, 54 regional parties and 2,797 unrecognised parties in the country so far.

So how is this change to the TRS going to impact national politics? But, why did KCR seek a makeover in the first place? A shrewd player he is, KCR not only seems to have read the 'present' correctly but also read the 'future' so. KCR might never say it, however, whether he has read the shelf-life of the TRS as short is to be understood. As the head of one of the most popular regional parties of the country, did KCR fear that his party's 'Telangana' appeal was diminishing? Telangana Rashtra Samithi, popularly known as TRS party, was founded on April 27, 2001 by Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao (KCR). The one and only objective of TRS party then was to achieve a separate statehood to Telangana.

With its uncompromising spirit to make aspirations for Telangana a reality, TRS party played a pivotal role in carrying forth a sustained agitation to achieve statehood for Telangana. Telangana statehood struggle is one of the longest peoples' movements in the world. The six decade struggle, which began in the early 50s, reached its goal in February 2014. The party has won twice in the Assembly elections since Telangana formation and will be facing the elections the next year. Despite the announcement of the BRS, it seems KCR does not have any plans to relinquish his control of Telangana. He seeks to continue being the Chief Minister while playing a crucial role in the national politics, a la Mamata Benerjee. Thus, he envisages a dual role to himself just as other regional party leaders with national aspirations do.

Whatever could be the reason for his move now, there is always a possibility that he was wary of the BJP's poaching plans. After the Maharashtra developments and BJP's taunts that there were Eknath Shindes in other States like Telangana, too, perhaps, he woke up to the possibility of such a turn to events here, too. His move to go national could be more to scuttle such efforts as it could make it difficult to split the party in Telangana once it is merged into the BRS.

More and more regional leaders are aspiring to become national leaders nowadays due to the decline of the Congress and tectonic shift in the Minority vote to regional parties. All this, however, does not offer Chandrashekar Rao any immunity from the BJPs 'investigative politics.'