BRS to TRS Name Change Will Be a Smooth Affair Under EC Norms

Hyderabad: Rechristening the Bharata Rashtra Samithi as the Telangana Rashtra Samithi will be a smooth affair, given the precedents of restoring the previous name to a political party, and also an unwritten rule in the Election Commisison of India to not allot the previous name of an outfit to any other applicant at least for six years.

The TRS in October 2022 had merely changed its name to the BRS and did not register the latter as a new party. “The same process will be followed to restore the TRS name,” said party senior leader and former MP B. Vinod Kumar. “There is no rule explicitly reserving the old name but the ECI follows the practice of keeping the name in abeyance till a considerable period of time,” he added

According to sources, the BRS leadership also heaved a sigh of relief after learning that firebrand rebel leader K. Kavitha had chosen to go with a name containing her brand “Jagruthi” for her proposed party instead of applying for the TRS tag. That could have launched a legal battle in the event of the EC turning down her request.

Earlier, former prime minister Indira Gandhi in 1978 engineered a split in Congress and set up her own party, the Congress (I), the short form of Congress (Indira). The party contested elections as the Congress (I) till she was assassinated, though all leaders of the original Congress joined her. It was during Rajiv Gandhi’s tenure that the party secured the name of Indian National Congress, which had become defunct by then, and merged the Congress (I) into it.

Similarly, in Tamil Nadu, veteran Congress leader G.K. Moopanar parted ways with the INC in 1996 and set up his own unit, the Tamil Maanila Congress. His son G.K. Vasan joined the Congress and merged the Tamil Manila Congress into the parent party a year after his father’s death in 2001. But the name was not allotted to others. Vasan quit the Congress and revived the Tamil Manila Congress in 2014.