The Election Commission of India (ECI) has refused to register the Telangana Rakshana Sena (TRS), a regional party floated by former Legislative Assembly member Kalvakuntla Kavitha, in view of several objections received from members of the public and various stakeholders, people familiar with the matter said on Saturday.
A party official said the EC had sent a letter to this effect to Kavitha earlier this week, to which the former MLC responded with disagreement, stating that the party’s registration could not be denied based on the objections raised in the letters.
The Election Commission of India said the proposed name for its party TRS could not be approved due to objections and demands contained in more than 1,100 letters from various parties and individuals, directing it to submit three alternative names for the party within 15 days, failing which the application will be treated as closed.
After Kavitha applied for registration, there were two main objections – one from the Telangana Rajya Samithi, registered by a Siddipet-based political group, and the other from the Telangana Rashtra Samajika Sena, a socio-political group based in Solapur in Maharashtra, a party official said.
“Both parties wanted the Telangana Rakshana Sena’s use of the abbreviation TRS to affect their political interests. Responding to these objections, Kavitha gave legally correct explanations. These two political groups have not contested any elections after 2023; therefore, there is no way our party will affect their political interests,” she said.
He said Kavitha responded to the ECI statement, stating that her party’s registration as TRS cannot be denied solely on the basis of letters written by individuals. He said: “Let the European Commission refer to us all the objections and we will respond to each of them, as we did in the case of the two parties earlier.”
Kavitha is ready to challenge the Election Commission’s decision in the high courts if necessary and will pursue all available legal remedies, the party official said.
Kavitha announced the launch of her new political party Telangana Rakshana Sena (TRS) at a huge public rally on the outskirts of Hyderabad on April 25. She appears to want to capitalize on the name TRS, which is similar to the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), which was originally founded by her father K Chandrashekar Rao in 2001.
KCR led the movement for a separate Telangana state under the TRS banner and won the elections twice in 2014 and 2018. In October 2022, he renamed the TRS as Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) as part of his plans to expand the party across the country.
“Kavitha has deliberately chosen the name Telangana Rakshana Sena such that its abbreviated form once again becomes TRS, seeking to revive the emotional connection associated with the original TRS brand between grassroots level workers and rural voters,” political analyst Srinivasa Rao Manchala said.
However, the BRS argued that allowing a new political party to use an abbreviation that closely resembles the abbreviation of an existing or well-known former political party could create confusion among voters.
“The IEC must wait at least 10 years before giving a party title, including its abbreviation, to anyone. The IEC has already banned the use of names that are identical and closely similar to the names of national and regional parties,” said a BRS leader who declined to give his name.
