It has been nearly two months since Telangana Rashtra Samithi president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao announced his ambitious entry into national politics by renaming his party as Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS).
The party leaders have been describing KCR as “Desh ki neta” (leader of the nation) and claiming that he would soon emerge as a potential alternative to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Though the formalities of converting the TRS into a national party are yet to be completed, it has led to a debate in the political circles that the TRS, once it becomes the BRS, will lose the right over Telangana and that it can no more claim to represent only Telangana identity.
Leaders like Talasani Srinivasa Yadav and Errabelli Dayakar Rao have even hinted that the BRS would contest the assembly elections in Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.
So, they have given an indication that the party is not the representative of just Telangana, but has attained national identity and that it can contest the elections anywhere in the country.
But surprisingly, the TRS leaders have suddenly started raising the Telangana sentiment all over again. During the attack on YSR Telangana party president Y S Sharmila’s convoy early this week, the TRS leaders have once again raised the Andhra-Telangana issue.
Describing her as a Andhra leader, the TRS leaders said they had no business to take up padayatra in Telangana. They pointed out that Sharmila and her family members, including her father Y S Rajasekhar Reddy and brother Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy were dead against Telangana.
They also alleged that Sharmila was talking about Telangana, only to protect her properties in the state. And she had to defend saying she is married to a Telangana guy and both her children were born and brought up here.
Naturally, there are questions as to why the TRS leaders are calling Sharmila as an Andhra woman and she has no right to do politics in Telangana, when KCR can expand his party to entire country and nurture the ambition of becoming a Prime Minister.
The TRS leaders have also observed Deeksha Diwas on November 29 to recall the deeksha taken up by KCR on the same day in 2009, thereby laying claim that the TRS symbolises the sacrifice made for Telangana.
Interestingly, when the Enforcement Directorate named TRS legislator and KCR’s daughter Kalvakuntla Kavitha in the remand report of one of the accused in the Delhi liquor policy scam, she tried to kick up the same Telangana sentiment.
She said the people of Telangana were politically conscious and would not succumb to the pressure tactics of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre.
“I am prepared to go jail and I am not afraid of ED, as long as the people of Telangana are with us,” Kavitha said.
So, it is quite obvious that the TRS leadership wants to exploit the Telangana sentiment as per their convenience, while claiming that it wants to take on Modi at the Centre!