The political outfit of Kalvakuntla Kavitha, named “Telangana Rashtra Sena (TRS)”, may face legal hurdles due to strict norms of the Election Commission of India (ECI) on party names that resemble existing or legacy political parties.
This assumes significance in the backdrop of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) transforming into the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) in 2022. Though the TRS nomenclature is not in use officially, it retains strong political recall among voters in Telangana. Sources said, the Election Commission of India (ECI) looks into “voter confusion” aspect while approving party names, examining phonetic similarity, visual resemblance and the use of common acronyms.
In Kavitha’s party’s case, the proposed name “Telangana Rashtra Sena” shares the first two words with the original TRS and carries the identical abbreviation, which the ECI may object to. A senior BRS leader reminded that the acronym ‘TRS’ is deeply embedded in Telangana psyche and associated with K. Chandrasekhar Rao for morethan 20 years. Retaining it in a new party name is likely to be seen as confusing. “However, the BRS is not interested in objecting it with the ECI,” he said. .
Despite these hurdles, the BRS leaders feel the ECI may approve the name if Ms. Kavitha has good equations with New Delhi. Sources said the ECI is yet to confirm the registration as TRS, and to avoid legal complications of misleading the public, the term ‘Association’ was added in small letters below the prominent ‘TRS’ branding.
