K Chandrashekhar Rao (KCR) – The inceptor of Telangana

Sushmita Dutta

Although the road map for the formation of Telangana has been laid down by the UPA government, Kalvakuntla Chandrashekhar Rao will be remembered by the people of Andhra Pradesh and India as the man played a key role in formation of India’s 29th state. KCR, as he is widely known among his supporters, started his political career with the Youth Congress party in Medak district in the 1970’s. Thereafter in 1983 he moved away from the Congress and joined the Telegu Desam Party (TDP). He then contested against A Madan Mohan in the Assembly elections and lost it. But after this defeat, from 1985 to 1999, KCR won four consecutive Assembly polls from Siddipet constituency. Rao was also the deputy speaker of the Andhra assembly. Though several leaders, including veteran M Channa Reddy, had tried to champion the cause of separate statehood for the Andhra region, it was KCR who started alone to fight for it by floating Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) in April 2001. As the TRS chief, he raised the slogan of self-respect and self-rule. With his grip over the Telegu lingo, he was an immediate crowd puller. Rao roused the sentiments of the people by focusing on the injustices meted out to the people of the region, which was merged with Andhra Pradesh in 1956. Telangana resounded with KCR’s voice, “Telangana wale jaago, Andhra wale bhago” (Wake up people of Telangana, run away people of Andhra). Although the road map for the formation of Telangana has been laid down by the UPA government, Kalvakuntla Chandrashekhar Rao will be remembered by the people of Andhra Pradesh and India as the man played a key role in formation of India’s 29th state. KCR, as he is widely known among his supporters, started his political career with the Youth Congress party in Medak district in the 1970’s. Thereafter in 1983 he moved away from the Congress and joined the Telegu Desam Party (TDP). He then contested against A Madan Mohan in the Assembly elections and lost it. But after this defeat, from 1985 to 1999, KCR won four consecutive Assembly polls from Siddipet constituency. Rao was also the deputy speaker of the Andhra assembly. Though several leaders, including veteran M Channa Reddy, had tried to champion the cause of separate statehood for the Andhra region, it was KCR who started alone to fight for it by floating Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) in April 2001. As the TRS chief, he raised the slogan of self-respect and self-rule. With his grip over the Telegu lingo, he was an immediate crowd puller. Rao roused the sentiments of the people by focusing on the injustices meted out to the people of the region, which was merged with Andhra Pradesh in 1956. Telangana resounded with KCR’s voice, “Telangana wale jaago, Andhra wale bhago” (Wake up people of Telangana, run away people of Andhra). After a long fight of 14 years the struggle finally bore fruit for Rao. The Telangana Bill received nod from both houses of Parliament in February 2014. Recently, in a major set-back for Congress, TRS chief made it clear that there won’t be any merger or alliance between both the parties. KCR made it very clear that TRS is not going to support Congress as they took 10-years for the Telangana issue to clarify. Interestingly, KCR has now decided to fight the upcoming elections on its own in the Telangana region. His son K Tarakarama Rao, a member of Andhra assembly and daughter K Kavitha who heads the Telangana Jagruthi, a cultural group will also actively support their father to win the polls.