Goodbye TRS, Welcome BRS

HYDERABAD: It is official. The people of Telangana will soon say goodbye to the 21-year-old Telangana Rashtra Samiti, popularly known as TRS, because the party is all set to lose its name, besides its Telangana-specific identity, and will welcome a national party, the BRS.

While the initials BRS are confirmed, what they stand for is yet to be confirmed as there are three different expansions under active consideration — Bharatiya Rashtra Samiti, Bharat Rashtriya Samiti and Bharat Rashtra Samiti.

Even the party flag would undergo a metamorphosis, with the Telangana map set to be replaced with a map of India to stamp the new national identity and ambition, and help the party create a pan-India appeal for itself.

Party sources said that TRS president and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao had decided to hold the party’s state executive meeting either on June 21 or 22 to pass a resolution to change the name of TRS to BRS. The move, party sources said, will help create a pan-India appeal for it, and enable it to play a pivotal role in national politics, by offering an “alternative political agenda” to India.

After the party passes the resolution, it would be sent to the Election Commission of India for approval.

Earlier, it had been proposed to hold this meeting on June 18 or 19 but has now been defered as the party chief is yet to complete all legal formalities. Official sources said the party’s ‘car symbol’ would, however, continue even after the change of name to BRS because the TRS is already a state party recognised by the ECI and a change of party name would not impact its symbol.

However, for contesting elections in other states on the car symbol the party needs to seek permission from the ECI. The ECI can approve car symbol in other states provided no other recognised party in that particular state has that symbol. No other major party in India has the car symbol, though there are state parties which share symbols, like the Samajwadi Party and the Telugu Desam have both a cycle symbol.

As per Rule 10 of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) 1968 order of the ECI, “If a political party, which is recognised as a state party in some state or states, sets up a candidate at an election in a constituency in any other state or Union Territory in which it is not a recognised state party, then such candidate may, to the exclusion of all other candidates in the constituency, be allotted the symbol reserved for that party in the state or states in which it is a recognised state party, notwithstanding that such symbol is not specified in the list of free symbols for such other state or Union Territory.”

However, the process of changing the party’s name would take a few weeks. As per norms, the party has to first submit an application to the ECI. As per existing guidelines, the applicant would be asked to publish a proposed party name in two national daily newspapers and two local daily newspapers, and provide two days for submitting objections, if any, with regard to the proposed registration of the party before the commission within 30 days from the publication. The notice for publication is also displayed on the website of the Election Commission.

To register a political party with a new name, an application for registration has to be sent by registered post or presented personally to the Secretary to the Election Commission within 30 days following the date of formation of the party in the format prescribed.