Reaching a new milestone, two-decade-old Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) on Thursday began work on its office building in New Delhi.

Telangana Chief Minister and TRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao laid the foundation stone for the party building at Vasant Vihar.

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Amid the chanting of Vedic hymns by priests and with elaborate religious rituals, the foundation was laid at the auspicious time of 1.48 p.m.

KCR’s cabinet colleagues, MPs, state legislators and several party leaders attended the ceremony. TRS is claimed to be the first political party from South India to open its office in Delhi.

The TRS chief along with some top party leaders had reached Delhi by a special aircraft on Wednesday.

TRS working president K.T. Rama Rao, who is the son of KCR, had already reached the national capital to supervise the arrangements for the foundation stone laying ceremony.

Coming up on 1,100 square meters of land, the TRS office will be called Telangana Bhavan, like its state headquarters in Hyderabad.

State minister for roads and buildings V. Prashanth Reddy said the three-storeyed building will have a conference hall, library and audio-visual theatre.

He said the TRS office in the national capital will serve as a research centre for the country. The minister said Telangana Bhavan will be a platform in Delhi to highlight the revolutionary welfare and schemes being implemented in Telangana.

Rama Rao described the foundation stone laying of the TRS office as a significant development for the party, which was completed 20 years in April.

KCR himself is overseeing the design and execution of the project, which is being planned in a manner that would stand out as a symbol of the self-respect of Telangana. The building will cater to the needs of TRS leaders and activists visiting the national capital. Party sources said it would also be accessible to the people of Telangana who are in Delhi, during distress.

The Centre had allotted land for the TRS office last year but the foundation stone laying was delayed due to the KCR Covid-19 pandemic.

The land allotment was made as per the rules, which prescribe that all political parties with a minimum of seven members in Parliament are eligible for allotment of land for their party office in Delhi.

TRS, which has 16 members in Parliament, was allotted two plots measuring 550 square meters by the land and development office of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.