TRS president and Telangana CM K. Chandrasekhar Rao has inspected a few sites in New Delhi for the office.
Hyderabad: The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) will construct its office in Delhi soon. The Centre has agreed to grant the party an area of 1,200 sq yards as per the existing norms which allow all major political parties to build their own offices in the national capital.
TRS president and Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) inspected a few sites for the office in Delhi on Friday.
The allotment of land to TRS in the limits of the New Delhi Municipal Corporation is done by the Union urban development ministry based on the number of MPs the party has in Parliament. TRS will have to pay Rs 5 crore to the Ministry as the land price. KCR has sent a team of his MPs led by B. Vinod Kumar to select one of the three sites suggested by the Ministry.
KCR has told his MPs on Friday in Delhi that he would lay the foundation stone for a swanky party office after 15 January and complete the construction by the last week of May, before the formation of the new Lok Sabha. Though no budget outlay has been decided, sources close to the Chief Minister told this newspaper that the TRS Delhi office would be built at around Rs 25 crore.
The TRS office in the national capital would be designed to meet its future needs as the party wants to play a major role in central politics through formation of a federal front. Besides an office for the national president (as TRS wants to become a national party by expanding its activities in Andhra Pradesh too), there will be provision for a meeting hall for guests and visiting dignitaries.
KCR wants to spend more time at the party office in Delhi after the coming Lok Sabha elections, leaving the state to his son and TRS working president K.T. Rama Rao (KTR).
KCR intends to hold several seminars and workshops with experts from different fields on issues of national importance. There will be a secretariat at the TRS office to assist such
deliberations.
KCR also met some economists, including agriculture expert Ashok Gulati, on Thursday in Delhi to discuss ways to bail out the agriculture sector that is currently passing through a crisis.
The CM has explained them the steps initiated by his government in Telangana and they decided to hold many such meetings in Delhi in the coming days. The TRS Delhi office would be a hub for federal front leaders.
The building of TRS office in Delhi and increased presence of KCR in the national capital is part of the phased transition of leadership from him to KTR in Telangana. Sources close to the Chief Minister had explained that the change would not take place suddenly, but in a gradual manner where KCR would hand hold his son to the CM post.
The decision to build an office of TRS in Delhi is in tune with KCR’s decision to build offices in all 33 district headquarters in Telangana within six months.
TRS presently has only one own office, Telangana Bhavan, in Banjara Hills in Hyderabad. The party has offices in some big districts, but in rental premises. KTR has been entrusted with the responsibility of constructing own offices in all the districts.
The CM is expected to take a decision on building his party to Andhra Pradesh in the coming Lok Sabha elections and if that happens, he might go for building offices in some big cities in the state too. When KCR went to Sri Swaroopanandendra Swami at Visakhapatnam last week, he was welcomed by big crowds who demanded that TRS should contest elections in AP too.