K. Chandrashekar Rao

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K. Chandrashekar Rao
Karimnagar
President of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi
In office
27 April 2001 – 5 October 2022
Working PresidentK. T. Rama Rao (from 15 December 2018)
Preceded byOffice Established
Succeeded byOffice Abolished
15th Deputy Speaker of Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly
In office
1999–2001
Speaker
Preceded byN. Mohammed Farook
Succeeded byKoppula Harishwar Reddy
Minister of Transport
Government of Andhra Pradesh
In office
1 September 1995 – 11 October 1999
GovernorKrishan Kant
Gopala Ramanujam
C. Rangarajan
Chief MinisterN. Chandrababu Naidu
Preceded byP. Chandrasekhar
Succeeded byAlimineti Madhava Reddy
Minister of Drought & Relief
Government of Andhra Pradesh
In office
1987–1988
GovernorKumudben Joshi
Chief MinisterN. T. Rama Rao
Member of Legislative Assembly
Andhra Pradesh
In office
1985–2004
Preceded byAnanthula Madan Mohan
Succeeded byT. Harish Rao
ConstituencySiddipet
Personal details
Born (1954-02-17) 17 February 1954 (age 70)
Hyderabad State, (present-day Telangana) India [2]
Political partyBharat Rashtra Samithi (Since 2001)
Other political
affiliations		Indian National Congress (1980–1983)
Telugu Desam Party (1983–2001)
SpouseK. Shobha
ChildrenK. T. Rama Rao (son)
K. Kavitha (daughter)
RelativesK. Himanshu Rao (grandchild)
T. Harish Rao (nephew)
Joginapally Santosh Kumar (nephew)
Alma materOsmania University

Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao (born 17 February 1954), frequently known by his initials KCR, is an Indian politician currently representing the

Chief Minister of Telangana after the formation of the state and held the position for almost 10 years. He was the leader of the Telangana Movement, the region's fight for a separate state.[6][7]

Early life

Rao was born to Raghava Rao and Venkatamma on 17 February 1954 in Chintamadaka village,

MA degree in Telugu literature from Osmania University, Hyderabad.[11][7]

Political career

Congress Party

Rao started his career with the Youth Congress in Medak.[6] He stood by Indira Gandhi even after her defeat in the 1977 Lok Sabha polls.[12]

Independent Candidate

In the 1983 Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly elections, Rao contested as an independent candidate in the Siddipet Assembly constituency. He lost to Ananthula Madan Mohan, a Congress candidate and a person he considered as his "guru", by just 877 votes. [13][6]

Telugu Desam Party

After the contest, in 1983, Rao joined the

Nara Chandrababu Naidu's cabinet.[14][15] He also served as the deputy speaker of the Andhra Pradesh Assembly from 2000 to 2001.[12]

Jai Telangana movement

Further information:
Telangana movement
K. Chandrashekhar Rao assumes the office of Labour and Employment Minister in New Delhi on 28 November 2004

On 27 April 2001, Rao resigned from the Telugu Desam Party, leaving his position of Deputy Speaker as well.

Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) Party (now called the Bharat Rashtra Samithi) at Jala Drushyam, Hyderabad to achieve Telangana statehood.[4][16] In the 2004 elections, he won from Siddipet and also the Karimnagar Lok Sabha constituency by-election, both as a TRS candidate. The TRS fought the 2004 general elections in alliance with the Indian National Congress with a Promise of Congress Party to give Telangana State and Rao was one of the five TRS candidates who was returned as MPs.[18][19]

TRS was part of the United Progressive Alliance coalition government, led by Congress. Rao went on to become a Union Cabinet minister of Labour and Employment in the UPA government.[6] The party later withdrew from the coalition, saying that the Alliance was not minded to support a separate Telangana state.[20][21] He has resigned as MP in 2006 on a challenge of Congress and won with a huge majority of more than 200,000 votes. Again he resigned as MP in agitation of Telangana movement and won with a minor majority.[22]

Rao addressing a public gathering during Telangana Agitation

In 2009, Rao fought and won the Mahbubnagar Lok Sabha elections.[23] In November 2009, he started a fast-unto-death, demanding the introduction of Telangana Bill in the Indian Parliament. After 11 days of beginning his fast, the Central Government said yes to Telangana as a separate state.[24][21]

In 2014, Rao was elected as MLA from

Medak with a majority of 397,029 on 16 May 2014.[25]

In Telangana, the TRS, which led the campaign for a separate State for more than a decade, emerged victorious by winning 11 of the 17 Lok Sabha seats and 63 of the 119 Assembly seats, and emerged as the party with the largest vote share.[26]

Foray into national politics

In May 2019, ahead of the

regional political parties. The Front's aim was to bring a non-Congress, non-BJP alliance to power at the Central Government of India.[27][28]

Bharat Rashtra Samithi

In June 2022, Rao announced to float a national party Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS).[29] On 5 October 2022, at the day of Vijayadashami, he renamed his party to Bharat Rashtra Samithi on party's Executive Council Meeting.

Chief Minister of Telangana (2014–2023)

See also: First K. Chandrashekar Rao ministry and Second K. Chandrashekar Rao ministry
K. Chandrashekar Rao with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Hyderabad Metro in 2017

Rao was sworn in as the first chief minister of the Telangana state at 12:57 pm on 2 June 2014. Rao, a staunch believer in astrology, numerology and Vaastu, is reported to have fixed this time for his inauguration as per the advice of priests to suit his lucky number 'six'.[27] He was re-elected eight times as TRS president.[30] In September 2018, he dissolved the Telangana Legislative Assembly, nine months before its term ends to go for an early election, in a move that has been called a masterstroke.[31][32] In December 2018, he was re-elected as Chief Minister for the second term, after winning the 2018 Telangana Legislative Assembly election by a big margin.[33]

Rao shaped the Telangana state to a high degree of development both economically and culturally, right from the formative years of the state since 2014. His welfare programs are aimed at reviving the rural economy and are focused on the development of each community. An intensive household survey, Samagra Kutumba Survey (SKS) was done in a single day on 19 August 2014 across the state to arrive at citizen information for rolling out welfare programs. The data collected pertaining to 94 parameters, covered one crore four lakh households in the State.[34]

Rao had revived the Telangana history, culture and festivals. The native festival Bathukamma, the festival of flowers and Shakti, was declared as a state festival.[35] In 2017, he declared Urdu to be the second official language of Telangana.[36] The government spent Rs. 1,200 crore for the expansion of the Yadadri temple.[37]

The Rao government has been described as populist, launching several welfare schemes.[38][39][40][41]

Rao launched the Aarogya Lakshmi scheme on 1 January 2015.[42][43] He launched multiple welfare schemes, such as the Double Bedroom Housing scheme, which aims to end slums in Telangana by providing free housing to the poor, the Kalyana Lakshmi - Shaadi Mubarak scheme, providing assistance to newlywed couples, the Rythu Bandhu scheme, providing assistance to farmers, and Aasara pension scheme, providing pensions to all senior citizens were also launched by the Rao government.[41][44][45] On August 16, 2021, he launched the Dalit Bandu Scheme.[46]

In 2023 elections, he contested from Gajwel and Kamareddy constituencies. He won Gajwel, but lost Kamareddy to Etela Rajender, a former member of his party.[47] As his party Bharat Rashtra Samithi was defeated by Indian National Congress led by Revanth Reddy, he submitted his resignation on 3 December 2023.[48]

Personal life

Rao is married to Shobha and has two children.[11] His son, K. T. Rama Rao is a legislator from Sircilla. He was the cabinet minister for IT, Municipal Administration & Urban Development in Telangana second assembly. His daughter, Kavitha, served as M.P. from Nizamabad and is currently serving as a Member of Legislative Council, Nizamabad. His nephew, Harish Rao, is MLA from Siddipet. He served as Telangana's cabinet minister for finance in second assembly of Telangana. He is proficient in Telugu, English, Urdu, and Hindi.[5][49] He lives with his family at his farm house at Erravelli in Medak district.[50]

In 2015, Rao adopted Pratyusha, who was rescued from domestic violence. She was married in 2020.[51][52]

In December 2023, he suffered a hip fracture after a fall at his farmhouse in Erravelli.[53] He was admitted to Yashoda Hospitals, Hyderabad for treatment and was discharged after a week.[54][55]

Views

Rao is a

Gandhian. He has credited Mahatma Gandhi's ideology for inspiring him in his non-violent Telangana movement.[56][57]

Rao has described Rahul Gandhi as the "biggest buffoon in the country".[58][59] He has described Narendra Modi as the "most ineffective PM" in Indian history.[60]

Rao is follower of Sri Vaishnavism of Ramanuja, an ardent devotee of his guru Chinna Jeeyar and a strong believer of Hinduism and spirituality.[61] To heighten spiritual consciousness, KCR initiated the reconstruction and renovation of significant temples across Telangana, including Yadadri, Kondagattu, and Vemulawada, among others.[62][63][64][65]

Other work

Rao gave lyrics for the song "Garadi chesthundru" from the film Jai Bolo Telangana (2011), and wrote a song in Kolimi (2015).[66] He also gave lyrics for songs to promote Mission Kakatiya and for his 2018 poll campaign.[67][68]

Electoral performance

Year Contested For Constituency Opponent Votes Majority Result
1 1983 MLA
Siddipet
 Ananthula Madan Mohan (INC) 27,889–28,766 – 887 Lost
2 1985 T. Mahender Reddy (INC) 45,215–29,059 16,156 Won
3 1989 Ananthula Madan Mohan (INC) 53,145–39,329 13,816 Won
4 1994 64,645–37,538 27,107 Won
5 1999 Mushinam Swamy Charan (INC) 69,169–41,614 27,555 Won
6 2001 By Polls Mareddy Srinivas Reddy (TDP) 82,632–23,920 58,712 Won
7 2004 Jilla Srinivas (TDP) 74,287–29,619 44,668 Won
8 2004 MP
Karimnagar
 Chennamaneni Vidyasagara Rao (BJP) 451,199–320,031 131,168 Won
9 2006 By Polls T. Jeevan Reddy (INC) 378,030–176,448 201,582 Won
10 2008 By Polls 269,452–153,687 115,765 Won
11 2009
Mahabubnagar
 Devarakonda Vittal Rao (INC) 366,569–346,385 20,184 Won
12
2014
 MLA
Gajwel
 Pratap Reddy Vanteru (TDP) 86,694–67,303 19,391 Won
13 2014 MP
Medak
 P. Shravan Kumar Reddy (INC) 657,492–260,463 397,029 Won
14 2018 MLA
Gajwel
 Pratap Reddy Vanteru (INC) 125,444–67,154 58,290 Won
15 2023 MLA Kamareddy K Venkata Ramana Reddy (BJP) 59,911-66,652 -6,741 Lost
Gajwel
 Etela Rajender (BJP) 111,684-66,653 45,031 Won

Awards

References

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External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao.
Preceded by
Position Established
Chief Minister of Telangana

2 June 2014 – 3 December 2023 		Succeeded by
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