About Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao (KCR)
Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao often referred to by his initials KCR, is an Indian politician currently serving as Leader of opposition in the Telangana Legislative Assembly. He was the Chief Minister of Telangana from 2014 till 2023. He is the founder and leader of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi a state party in India.
Previously, he served as the Union Minister of Labor and Employment from 2004 to 2006. He represents Gajwel Assembly constituency in the Telangana Legislative Assembly. Rao took oath as the first Chief Minister of Telangana in 2014 following his election victory and was re-elected to a second term in 2018.[5] While he was re-elected in his constituency, his party was defeated in the 2023 Telangana Legislative Assembly election by a smaller margin of 2 percentage vote share.
Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) Biography
| Full name | Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao |
| Nick Name | KCR |
| Date of Birth/DOB | 17 February 1954 |
| Birth Place | Chintamadaka Village of Medak District |
| Current Designation | MLA of Gajwel |
| Current Address | #3-27, Chinthamadaka (v), Siddipet (m), Medak Dist, telangana |
| Profession | Politician |
| Father name | Raghava Rao and Venkatamma |
| Mother name | Venkatamma |
| Married | Yes |
| Spouse | K. Shobha |
| Education Qualification | MA degree in Telugu literature |
| College or University | Osmania University, Hyderabad. |
| Religion | Hinduism |
| Caste | Velama |
| Nationality | Indian |
Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) Political Career:
- KCR entered into politics with the help of his brother K Ranga Rao. In 1982, KCR was appointed as the Vice President of the State Youth Congress in Medak District. In 1983, he became a member of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) which was founded by N. T Rama Rao. KCR contested, as an Independent Candidate, in the 1983 Andhra Pradesh Assembly Election, but lost to A. Madan Mohan. He, again, contested in the subsequent Assembly Elections and won for four consecutive terms from 1985 to 1999 from Siddipet Constituency. He has also been a Member of the Legislative Assembly from the Siddipet Constituency. KCR also Served as the Minister of Drought and relief in N. T. Rama Rao’s Cabinet. In 1996 he became the transport minister in Chandrababu Naidu’s Cabinet and in 2000-2001 he was elected as the Deputy Speaker of the Andhra Pradesh Assembly.
Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) Early political career
Congress Party
- Rao started his career with the Youth Congress Party in Medak district.
Telugu Desam Party
- Rao joined the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in 1983 and contested against A. Madan Mohan and lost that election. He won four consecutive Assembly elections from Siddipet in 1985 and 1999. From 1987 to 1988, he worked as Minister of Drought and Relief in Chief Minister N. T. Rama Rao’s cabinet. In 1990, he was appointed TDP convener for Medak, Nizamabad, and Adilabad districts. In 1996, he worked as Transport minister in Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu’s cabinet. He also served as the deputy speaker of the Andhra Pradesh Assembly from 2000 to 2001.
Jai Telangana movement
- On 27 April 2001, Rao resigned as Deputy Speaker of, the TDP Party as well. He asserted that the people of the Telangana region were being discriminated against and believed that a separate state is the only solution.
- In April 2001, he formed the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) Party at Jala Drushyam, Hyderabad to achieve Telangana statehood.
- In the elections of 2004, Rao won the Siddipet state assembly constituency and also the Karimnagar Lok Sabha constituency, 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.
- TRS was part of the United Progressive Alliance coalition government, led by Congress. He went on to become a Union Cabinet minister of Labour and Employment in the United Progressive Alliance government at the centre with his party colleague Aelay Narendra who became minister of Rural Development and Jannu Jakaraiah as chairman for National Minimum Wages Advisory Board. The party later withdrew from the coalition, saying that the Alliance was not minded to support a separate Telangana state.[16] 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.
- In 2009, Rao fought and won the Mahbubnagar Lok Sabha elections. 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.
- The TRS party fought the general elections as part of the opposition coalition led by TDP. In 2014, Rao was elected as MLA from Gajwel Assembly Constituency of Medak Dist of Telangana State with a majority of 19,218 and as MP from Medak with a majority of 397,029 on 16 May 2014.
- 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.
Chief Minister of Telangana (2014–2023)
- K. Chandrashekar Rao with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Hyderabad Metro in 2017
- KCR 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’.
- Rao was re-elected 8 times as TRS president. In September 2018, Rao dissolved the Telangana Legislative Assembly, nine months before its term ends to go for an early election.
- In December 2018, Rao was re-elected as Chief Minister for the second term, after winning the 2018 Telangana Legislative Assembly election.
- KCR 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.
- KCR had revived Telangana’s history, culture and festivals. The native festival Bathukamma, festival of flowers and Shakti was declared as state festival. In 2017, he declared Urdu to be the second official language of Telangana. The government spent Rs. 1200 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 also launched 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, 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 August 16, 2021, he launched the Dalit Bandu Scheme.
- In 2023 elections, he contested from Gajwel and Kamareddy constituencies. He won from Gajwel and lost from Kamareddy. As his party Bharat Rashtra Samithi was defeated by the Indian National Congress led by Revanth Reddy, he submitted his resignation on 3rd December 2023.
National Politics
- In May 2019, ahead of the 2019 Indian general election, KCR attempted to set up the Federal Front along with leaders of other regional political parties. The Front aimed to bring a non-Congress, non-BJP alliance to power at the Central Government of India.
Bharat Rashtra Samithi
- In June 2022, KCR announced to float of a national party Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS). On 5 October 2022, on the day of Vijayadashami, KCR renamed his party to Bharat Rashtra Samithi at the party’s Executive Council Meeting.
| Present Political Party | Bharat Rashtra Samithi |
| Current position | MLA of Gajwel |
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