Will KCR's Bharat Rashtra Samithi go NTR's Bharat Desam way? 

New Delhi: In December 1991, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) founder, legendary actor-turned-politician and former chief minister of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh Nandamuri Taraka Ramarao, popularly known as NTR, had stunned everyone with his announcement to launch a new national party, the Bharat Desam. 

The move had surprised his friends and foes alike as it was meant to replace the National Front, a grouping that was his brainchild and of which he was the main architect. 

Perhaps NTR was unhappy with the performance of the National Front that he had formed in 1988 to bring all the opposition parties together against the Congress akin to Jayaprakash Narayan or JP's move in 1977. Apart from the TDP, the National Front comprised the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP). 

Five years later on January 18, 1996, NTR, who had served united Andhra Pradesh three times as its chief minister, died of a heart attack over a year after he was dethroned by his son-in-law Chandrababu Naidu in a coup on August 23, 1995. The Bharat Desam remained NTR's pipedream as it failed to take off.

About 31 years later, a fellow Telugu leader is treading the same path. 

Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao or KCR on October 5 renamed his 21-year-old Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) as the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) in line with his long-time ambition to go national. 

Will KCR meet NTR's fate? 

Like NTR, KCR too wanted to float a national front or a third front to bring all the non-Congress and non-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) outfits under one platform. Having initially started this initiative in 2018 soon after forming the government in Telangana for a successive second term, KCR continued with his efforts till early this year. 

However, he realised that the majority of parties were unwilling to be part of his front and insisted that an opposition grouping without the Congress as its fulcrum will never succeed. 

Thus, he gave up the idea of the national front and instead decided to launch a national party with an agenda to oust the BJP from the Centre. 

KCR's idea is to focus on Telugu-speaking areas in Maharashtra and Karnataka. 

In North India and other parts of the country, he is looking at alliances with regional leaders such as Nitish Kumar, Akhilesh Yadav, Arvind Kejriwal and Mamata Banerjee. 

KCR seeks to expand his party's footprints in other states by pitching his Telangana good governance model that is based on some major welfare programmes. 

Some of the major schemes being implemented in the state include 'Rythu Bandhu' which provides initial investment needs to every farmer; Dalit Bandhu' under which one-time financial assistance of Rs 10 lakh is provided to every Scheduled Caste family to set up an income-generating business unit; KCR Kit', a Rs 12,000 aid for a pregnant woman to take care of herself and the newborn child; 'Aasara' pensions to all the poor; Mission Kakatiya and Mission Bhagiratha to provide water for irrigation, drinking and industrial purposes apart from Kalyana Lakshmi and Shaadi Mubarak schemes to alleviate financial distress of SC/ST and minority families by providing one-time financial assistance of Rs 2 lakh at the time of marriage of girls. 

KCR has already announced the setting up of the first unit of the BRS outside Telangana in Maharashtra. 

But he will not venture into Andhra Pradesh given that the ruling YSR Congress Party of YS Jaganmohan Reddy is his ally. 

In Karnataka, KCR might forge an alliance with the Janata Dal (Secular) whose leader and former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy was present at the TRS rechristening ceremony in Hyderabad. 

Ironically, Kumaraswamy was a few months ago hobnobbing with the BJP for an alliance in Karnataka. However, he was firmly told that the BJP will consider any tie-up with the JD(S) only after the 2023 assembly elections. 

The other leader present in Hyderabad on October 5 was Tamil Nadu's Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) founder Thol Thirumavalavan whose party has a tie-up with the DMK, a trusted alliance partner of the Congress.

KCR's move to go national had apparently irked political strategist Prashant Kishor whose Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) is handling the election strategy and campaign of the TRS for the 2023 assembly polls in Telangana. The I-PAC wants to renegotiate the deal that was signed specifically for Telangana. It is also said that Kishor is not supportive of KCR's plunge into national politics. He feels that the TRS should consolidate its base further in Telangana especially when the BJP is aggressively making inroads in the state. 

The immediate concern for KCR should be the November 3 by-election to the Manugode assembly seat, which was vacated by Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy, who quit Congress to join the BJP. He has now filed the nomination as the BJP candidate. If the TRS (now BRS) wins the seat, it will strengthen KCR's hold on Telangana. If the BJP wins the seat or pushes Congress to the third position, it will emerge as the main opposition party or KCR's main challenger in 2023. For the Congress, a win will not only stem its electoral slide in the state but also boost its confidence ahead of next year's assembly elections.