HYDERABAD: TRS president and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao's plan of launching a national party has created a flutter in political circles.
While the TRS has the status of a 'state party', Chandrashekar Rao disclosed his plans of launching a national party in the name of Bharatiya Rashtra Samiti or some other name, which will be decided later, in his meeting with ministers, MPs and party's senior leaders at Pragathi Bhavan on Friday.
As per norms prescribed by the Election Commission of India, to get national status a party requires 'state party' status in at least four states. To get 'state party' status, a party has to secure six per cent votes in Assembly polls or win two seats in a particular state.
There is also one more option to secure 'state party' status. A party which wins at least three seats in Assembly polls will get 'state party' status irrespective of vote share. One more alternative is that a party should win two per cent of the total seats in the Lok Sabha (11) from at least three states in the general elections.
A political party is also recognised as a national party if its candidates secure six per cent of votes polled in at least four or more states in Lok Sabha or Assembly polls, in addition to winning at least four Lok Sabha seats.
At present, there are only eight national parties in the country, namely, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Indian National Congress (INC), Trinamool Congress (TMC), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Communist Party of India (CPI), Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and National People's Party (NPP).
Of this, the TMC, CPI and NCP are facing the risk of losing 'national party status' with EC serving show cause notices to them in August 2019 seeking explanation on why their national party status should not be withdrawn after their rout in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. However, these parties requested the EC to continue their national party status until the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and the EC's decision is pending.
TRS leaders and cadres are said to be racking their brains about what would be the roadmap for Chandrashekar Rao to achieve this herculean task of launching a national party.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the only regional party to be in power in two states (Delhi and Punjab) and contested Assembly polls in a few states, could not secure national party status so far.
The AAP got 54 per cent vote share in Delhi Assembly elections 2020. In recent Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, and Goa elections, it got a vote share of 0.3 per cent, 42 per cent, 3.4 per cent and 6.77 per cent respectively.
The TRS sources said Chandrashekar Rao would give more clarity on the roadmap for launching the national party in the party's state committee meeting next week, expected on June 19. As of now, it's difficult to convert even the 21-year old TRS as a national party as it is confined only to Telangana. The party has no history of contesting elections anywhere except Telangana since its launch in 2001.
