K. Chandrashekar Rao

Political career

Congress Party Rao started his career with the Youth Congress in Medak. He also served as the Deputy Speaker of the Andhra Pradesh Assembly from 2000 to 2001.

Jai 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. He stated that the people of the Telangana region were being discriminated against and believed that a separate state was the only solution. The same day, he formed the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) Party (now called the Bharat Rashtra Samithi) at Jala Drushyam, Hyderabad to achieve Telangana statehood.

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. thumb

In 2009, Rao won the Mahbubnagar Lok Sabha elections. In November 2009, he started a hunger strike, demanding the introduction of the Telangana Bill in the Indian Parliament. Eleven days later, the Central Government initiated the process to grant Telangana statehood.

In Telangana, the TRS, which led the campaign for a separate state for over a decade, received the most votes, winning 11 of the 17 Lok Sabha seats and 63 of the 119 Assembly seats.

Foray into national politics In May 2019, ahead of the 2019 Indian general election, Rao attempted to set up Federal Front along with leaders of other regional political parties. The Front's aim was to bring a non-Congress, non-BJP alliance to power in the Central Government of India.

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

Chief Minister of Telangana (2014–2023) 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 on 2 June 2014. Rao, a staunch believer in astrology, numerology and vaastu, is reported to have fixed 12:57 PM for his inauguration as per the advice of priests to suit his lucky number 'six', since the sum of the digits is 'fifteen' and '1+5=6.' In September 2018, he dissolved the Telangana Legislative Assembly, nine months before its term ends to go for an early election. 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.

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.

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. In 2017, he declared Urdu to be the second official language of Telangana. The government spent Rs. 1,200 crore for the expansion of the Yadadri temple.

The Rao government has been described as populist, launching several welfare schemes.

Rao launched the Aarogya Lakshmi scheme on 1 January 2015. 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. On 16 August 2021, he launched the Dalit Bandu Scheme.

Post chief minister role (2024–present) In the December 2023 Telangana Legislative elections, he contested from both Gajwel and Kamareddy constituencies. He won from Gajwel by defeating Etela Rajender, a former member of his party, by 45553 votes. In a major face-off, the two major candidates for the post of Chief Minister of Telangana KCR and Revanth Reddy were contesting against each other in the seat of Kamareddy. They both lost to K. V. Ramana Reddy, a member of the BJP. After his defeat to the Indian National Congress, he submitted his resignation on 3 December 2023 and Revanth Reddy formed the new ministry. alt=The Chief Minister of Telangana, Shri K. Chandrashekar Rao calling on the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, in New Delhi on December 26, 2018 KCR took on a new role as leader of the opposition in the Telangana Legislative Assembly after his defeat, on 16 December 2023. Rao, who had previously stayed off social media, joined X (Twitter) and Instagram on 27 April 2024, coinciding with his party's 23rd anniversary in an attempt to reach more people. In June 2024, he declined an invitation by Chief Minister to participate in the state celebrations marking 10 years of the formation of the state and chose to participate in his party's celebrations.

In the 2024 Indian general elections, his party failed to secure a single seat, despite contesting in all 17 of Telangana's Lok Sabha Constituencies, compared to the 9 seats they won in the previous elections.

Personal life Rao is married to Shobha and has two children. He lives with his family at his farm house at Erravelli in Medak district.

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

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

Positions held Position Duration Leader of the Opposition(Telangana Legislative Assembly) 16 December 2023 Present Chief Minister(Government of Telangana) 2 June 2014 7 December 2023 (2 terms) Member, 16th Lok Sabha Re-elected on 16 May 2014 (3rd term) Resigned on 29 May 2014 Member, 15th Lok Sabha Re-elected in 2009 (2nd term) Leader, Telangana Rashtra Samithi Parliamentary Party, Lok Sabha Member, Standing Committee on Energy (31 August 2009) Member,Rules Committee (23 September 2009) Union Cabinet Minister, Labour and Employment 27 November 200424 August 2006 Member, 14th Lok Sabha Elected in 2004 Resigned on 23 September 2006 Re-elected in bye-election on 7 December 2006 Resigned on 3 March 2008 Convenor,New States National Front 2003 Deputy Speaker,Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly 19992001 Cabinet Minister, Transport, Govt. of Andhra Pradesh 19972000 Member, Committee on Public Undertakings 19951996 State Secretary,Telugu Desam Party (T.D.P.) 19931994 Chairman,Committee on Public Undertakings 19921993 District Party President, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) 19891993 Minister of Drought,Govt. of Andhra Pradesh 19881989 Minister of State,Govt. of Andhra Pradesh 19871988 Member,Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly 1985 1989 1994 1999 2001 Member, Telangana Legislative Assembly,(w.e.f. 2 June 2014) 2014 2018 2023 Chairman, Raghavapur Primary Agriculture Cooperative Society (P.A.C.S.), Siddipet 1982 Vice-President, Andhra Pradesh Youth Congress

Views

Rao is a Gandhian and has stated that the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi inspired him to follow a non-violent approach in his demands during the Telangana movement.

In 2019, Rao described Rahul Gandhi as the "biggest buffoon in the country" and Narendra Modi as the "most ineffective PM" in India's history.

Rao is a follower of Sri Vaishnavism and a devotee of Chinna Jeeyar, his guru in the tradition of Ramanuja. He has led efforts to rebuild major temples in Telangana, including Yadadri, Kondagattu, and Vemulawada.

Controversies

Kaleshwaram project scam During his tenure as Chief Minister of Telangana, Rao has undertaken an irrigation project as Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project, which was touted as the world's largest multi-stage lift irrigation project. The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has come out with a damning report on the project in Feb 2024, which says it was economically unviable from the start and details the massive cost overruns, possible undue benefits accrued to contractors for the supply and commissioning of pumps, motors, etc., and the poor planning involved. The project costs have likely exceeded to Rs. 1.47 lakh crores (US$17.698 billion), as against Rs. 81,911 crores (US$9.87 billion) projected to the Central Water Commission (CWC). This report was released within a year after the Medigadda barrage sank. The National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA) found that the Medigadda barrage is severely compromised, rendering it useless unless fully renovated.

Sheep distribution scam Launched in 2017 by Rao himself, the Sheep Rearing Development Scheme (SRDS) focused on promoting rural livelihoods by giving subsidized sheep to eligible members. Using this scheme, beneficiaries are supposed to receive sheep with a 75 percent subsidy from the state government. The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) reported about the serious anomalies in the implementation of the scheme. The report cited various findings like falsified beneficiary records, increased transportation invoices, usage of non-commercial vehicles for transport, duplicate sheep tags, and allotments for fictitious beneficiaries.

The CAG report audit is limited to only 7 districts of the total 33, where the government's loss was estimated to be Rs. 253.93 crores. Proportionately, for all the 33 districts of Telangana, loss is calculated to surpass Rs. 1000 crores. He also wrote a song in Kolimi (2015). He also gave lyrics for songs to promote Mission Kakatiya and for his 2018 poll campaign.

Electoral performance

Lok Sabha Year ConstituencyParty Votes % OpponentOpponent Party Opponent Votes % Result Margin % 2014 Medak 657,492 55.20 P. Shravan Kumar Reddy 260,463 21.87 397,029 33.33 2009 Mahabubnagar 366,569 39.56 Devarakonda Vittal Rao 346,385 37.39 20,184 2.17 2008Karimnagar(by-election) 269,452 36.66T. Jeevan Reddy 153,687 34.51 15,765 2.15 2006 378,030 47.61 176,448 22.23 201,582 25.38 2004 Karimnagar 451,199 51.59 C. Vidyasagar Rao 320,031 36.60 131,168 14.99

Legislative Assembly

Awards Popular Choice Award at CNN-IBN Indian of the Year 2014 Agricultural leadership award 2017 Economic Times Awards – Business reformer of the year 2018 Asian Scientist 100, Asian Scientist, 2018