It has been more than 17 years since Telangana Rashtra Samithi was founded by present chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.
Hitherto, the party has been surviving only on Telangana sentiment. KCR had been able to exploit this sentiment in every election since 2004 and after the formation of Telangana in 2014 and TRS coming to power, everybody thought the sentiment would gradually die down.
But in 2018 assembly elections, the TRS president successfully revived this sentiment, thanks to the alliance between the Congress and Telugu Desam Party.
It is because of this sentiment, the TRS had been able to win the elections, though it does not have proper organizational structure.
The party has never conducted organizational elections, right from village level to the state level. Only a state executive committee is formed with a few leaders headed by KCR and there have been no committees from grassroots.
KCR has now realized that it is not possible to win the elections every time with the same Telangana sentiment but has to build the party organization strongly. That is why he has entrusted the responsibility of building the party to his son K T Rama Rao.
Speaking to media on Saturday, KTR said his first priority is to transform TRS into a cadre-based party right from booth-level to State-level.
He would strengthen the organization from top to bottom by taking up membership drive in a big way. He would gear up the party for panchayat raj and municipal elections and also for Lok Sabha elections in April 2019.
He said that there was enthusiasm among TRS cadre after the party won 88 out of 119 Assembly segments. He said he would maintain the same level of enthusiasm in future.
He said that the TRS retained power in Telangana due to support of minorities and therefore, they would be given prominence in all the committees.
So, what KCR could not do all these years would have to be accomplished by his son!