TRS To BRS: KCR’s Party To Keep Regionalist Core Despite Change Of Name

Meat, spices, onions, rice, and oil cooked to a nicety in an atta-lined pot. That’s the sum and substance of the quintessential Hyderabadi biryani. Even a change in its nomenclature would make little difference to the steamy coming together of flavoured rice and meat that tumbles onto one’s plate. 

Just like the unexpected rechristening of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) to Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) on October 5 by K. Chandrashekar Rao (KCR), with a promise to widen the appeal of the regional party and a canny eye on the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. 

According to political observers in Telangana, the rechristening of the TRS to BRS, though expansionist in objective, is not expected to alter the tone and tenor of KCR’s politics on home turf. 

For nearly two decades now, senior journalist Mohammed Shafeeq has been covering politics from Hyderabad, in its avatar as the capital city for the unified state of Andhra Pradesh and later the freshly carved entity Telangana. 
Shafeeq argues that the name change is not expected to change the regionalist core of KCR’s outfit. 

“If you see, during the entire Telangana movement and even after the formation of the separate state, the TRS always spoke about the Telangana sentiment. It successfully built the narrative around the powerful cultural symbols of Telangana, be it festivals, be it the rulers, the festivals, the cultures and traditions,” Shafeeq told Outlook.  

The party was founded by KCR in 2001 as a political platform to lobby for a separate Telangana state. Telangana as a state was formally born in 2014 and has been ruled by the TRS since. The party’s tally has also swelled from 63 seats in 2014 to 88 seats after the conclusion of the 2018 assembly polls. 

And despite the Congress emerging as second largest legislative party after the 2018 polls, winning 19 seats, KCR’s party continues to project the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as its key opponent for the upcoming polls in the Southern state. 

There is a reason for KCR dumbing down the Congress credentials as a major political foe, according to BJP’s chief spokesperson for Telangana K. Krishna Sagar Rao.  

Rao believes that a regionalist potion is the Telangana Chief Minister’s most favoured antidote to counter the nationalist BJP, which is keenly eyeing Telangana as the second Southern state where it could make a mark in after Karnataka.  

“He (KCR) was questioning us so much that the people locally would forget that he was also in power locally...He diverted them to question Modi ji. The game was also to talk about outsider versus insider, because the regional fight is finished, between Andhra and Telangana. The new fight was Delhi versus Telangana and the injustice being done,” Rao claimed. 

“TRS is playing the politics of perception that they are worried about us. They are not. They want to finish off Congress, because they fear that the Congress can rise anytime,” Rao also said. 

According to Shafeeq, the renaming of the TRS to BRS was an indication of KCR’s ambition to widen his horizon as a national leader and connect with voters outside the state of Telangana and perhaps in a way look to be better placed to negotiate broader political gains ahead of the 2024 general elections. 

While the move may have been made with some months to go for the state election and more than a year and then some to go for the general elections, the Hyderabad-based journalist claims, Rao appears confident of retaining his home turf. 

“They feel that they are safe on their home turf and they want to move out. They feel they have succeeded in whatever they were trying to develop on the Telangana front. Say the issue of electricity for example…It was a power deficit state when it was formed, now they say it is power surplus. They overcame the problem, they want to highlight such achievements (nationally),” Shafeeq said. 

One of the takeaways from the October 5 announcements made by KCR was the projection of the Telangana model of governance to his wider audience. 

“We took Telangana to new heights in terms of development and welfare, setting new benchmarks for others. We have shown to the world that with commitment and zeal, one can do wonders and serve the people,” KCR said. 

He further said, “Now, it is time to take the Telangana model of development to the entire country. Even after 75 years of Independence, India has remained backward in many areas, lagging behind smaller countries like Bangladesh.”

BJP’s Rao, however, claims that KCR’s move to jump from being a regional satrap to a pan India role was inexplicable and fraught with risk. 

“It is not easy for a national party to beat a regional (party)…Now KCR has taken a different leap. Either he can fall in the pit with the leap he has taken or he can become one of the small players in the national platform. Regional trump card is very critical to his survival so far. God knows why he has gone into the BRS kind of a thing,” Rao said. 

BRS spokesperson Reddy, however, claimed that his party would counter the BJP’s “divisive approach” with his party’s inclusive politics, which he said was the need of the hour in the country. 

“An ideology should work for the nation’s integrity, development, and welfare of the people. It should not be to divide the people. In the name of nationalistic approach or cultural nationalism, BJP propagates the divisive approach. But our approach is to integrate people. This is the fundamental difference,” Reddy said.