Know Your MLA: A tall leader of statehood movement

Siddipet: BRS chief and the first Chief Minister of the newly formed state of Telangana, Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) has an illustrated political career both at the state and the national level.

The 70-year politician elected from the Gajwel Assembly segment is currently the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Telangana State Assembly after successfully serving as the chief minister twice since 2014.

KCR is the founder and chief of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), later rechristened as the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), to expand its footprints in neighbouring Maharashtra and other states.

KCR earned name for leading the second phase of the Telangana Movement and galvanising support from every quarter of the state that led to the formation of Telangana. KCR holds a postgraduate degree in Telugu literature and is known to have written several pieces of poetry and contributed to writing film songs twice.

He started his political career in the youth wing of the Congress party and was a strong supporter of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi while serving the party even after her defeat in 1977. He first ventured to step into the State Assembly by contesting as an independent candidate from the Siddipet Assembly segment in United Andhra Pradesh in 1983.

He was defeated by the Congress candidate with less than 900 votes.

After this, he joined the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and stormed into the political landscape led by prominent Telugu film actor turned politician NT Rama Rao. He was elected from Siddipet Assembly segment from 1985 to 1999. He served as the minister in the then Chief Minister N T Rama Rao's cabinet.

Later, he served as Transport Minister in the cabinet of former Chief Minister of United AP N Chandrababu Naidu and went on to become the deputy speaker of the Andhra Pradesh State Assembly in 2000.

However, due to differences with the party chief, Rao resigned from the TDP a year later citing that the people of Telangana were being discriminated against under the rulers of the United AP. He formed the TRS and was elected to the Lok Sabha in the 2004 elections from the Karimnagar Parliament Constituency and the Siddipet Assembly segment. Rao forged an alliance with the Congress on a promise that the Congress, which had come to power at the Centre would create a separate state of Telangana. TRS shared power with Congress by joining the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) coalition government at the Centre. He was appointed as the Union Minister of Labour and Employment. However, he severed ties with the UPA and resigned as an MP in 2006. Later, he was elected from the Mahbubnagar Lok Sabha segment in 2009 and went on fast to death demanding the creation of Telangana State. KCR's 11-day fast turned the tide against the Centre with the entire state on its toes fighting for a separate state. Forced, the Centre announced the creation of a separate state of Telangana.

KCR won as an MLA from Gajwel in 2014, after the creation of the Telangana state and his party earned the majority seats. Thus, TRS formed its first government and won successive Assembly elections and KCR served as the chief minister for 10 years. However, in a bid to make big in national politics, KCR renamed his party as BRS to fight against the BJP and tried to garner the support of the opposition of different parties.

However, it remained successful, and his party was defeated in the state assembly elections in 2023, handing over the power to the Congress. However, BRS remained the single largest party in the state after the Congress.