Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao

The Honourable Kalvakuntla Chandrasekhar Rao
కల్వకుంట్ల చంద్రశేఖర రావు
1st Chief Minister of Telangana
Incumbent
Assumed office 2 June 2014
Governor	E.S.L. Narasimhan
Preceded by	Office Established
Minister of Labour and Employment
In office 22 May 2004 – 2006
Prime Minister	Manmohan Singh
Deputy Speaker of Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly
In office 1999–2001
Minister of Transport, Andhra Pradesh
In office 1996–1999
Minister of Drought & Relief, Andhra Pradesh
In office 1987–1988
Member of Parliament
In office 2009–2014
Constituency	Mahbubnagar, Andhra Pradesh (now in Telangana)
In office 2004–2009
Constituency	Karimnagar, Andhra Pradesh (now in Telangana)
Member of the Legislative Assembly
Incumbent
Assumed office 2014
Constituency	Gajwel, Telangana State
In office 1985–2004
Constituency	Siddipet, Andhra Pradesh (now in Telangana)
Personal details
Born	(1954-02-17) 17 February 1954 Siddipet, Andhra Pradesh State, India (now in Telangana, India)
Nationality	Indian
Political party	Telangana Rashtra Samithi
Spouse(s)	K. Shobha
Children	K. T. Rama Rao K. Kavitha
Residence	Hyderabad, Telangana, India
Alma mater	Osmania University
Religion	Hinduism

Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao (born 17 February 1954), popularly known and abbreviated as KCR,^[1][2][3] is the first and the current Chief Minister of the Indian state of Telangana. He is the president of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, a regional party in India.^[4] He is a Member of the Legislative Assembly (Telangana) from the Gajwel constituency of Medak District in Telangana. Previously, he served as the Member of the Legislative Assembly (Andhra Pradesh) from Siddipet and also as the Member of Parliament from Mahbubnagar, Karimnagar and Medak. He took oath as the first Chief Minister of the new state of Telangana on 2 June 2014.

Early life

Rao was born on 17 February 1954 in Chintamadaka village, Siddipeta Mandal, Medak District of Telangana State. ^[5] He attained a Masters degree in Literature from Osmania Arts College-Osmania University, Hyderabad.^[6]

Political career

Congress Party

KCR started his career with the youth Congress party in Medak district.Under the leadership of Sanjay Gandhi though congress was in a bad position he stood with them. later he joined Telugu Desam Party led by NT.Rama Rao. KCR is known for his fluency in Telugu, Hindi, English and Urdu languages.

Telugu Desam Party

KCR joined the TDP in 1983 and contested against A.Madan Mohan and lost that election. He won four consecutive Assembly elections from Siddipet between 1985 and 1999. From 1987-1988, he worked as Minister of Drought & Relief in N. T. Rama Rao's cabinet. In 1990, he was appointed as TDP convener for Medak, Nizamabad and Adilabad districts. In 1996, he worked as Transport minister in Chandrababu Naidu's cabinet. He also served as the deputy speaker of the Andhra Pradesh Assembly from 2000-2001.^[7]

Telangana Rashtra Samithi

Rao, the First Chief Minister of Telangana State, at a prime location in the capital Hyderabad.

On 27 April 2001, Rao resigned as Deputy Speaker, TDP MLA and TDP Party as well.^[8] He stood for the people of the Telangana region were being discriminated and believed that separate state is the only solution.^[9] In April 2001, he formed the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) Party at Jala Drushyam, Hyderabad to achieve Telangana statehood. ^[8]

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 and Rao was one of the five TRS candidates who were returned as MPs.^[10]

TRS was part of the United Progressive Alliance coalition government, led by Congress. The party later withdrew from the coalition, saying that the Alliance was not minded to support a separate Telangana state.^[11] In 2004, he fought the Lok Sabha polls and went on to become a Union Cabinet minister of Labour and Employment in the UPA-1 government at the Centre with Jannu.Jakaraiah as Chairman for National Minimum Wages Advisory Board. He resigned in 2006 With Jannu jakariah.^[7] In 2009, Rao fought and won the Mahbubnagar Lok Sabha election. The TRS party fought the general elections as part of the opposition coalition led by TDP. In 2014, KCR was elected as MLA from Gajwel Constituency of Medak Dist of Telangana State with a majority of 19218 and as MP from Medak Constituency with a majority of 397029 on 16-5-2014. 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.^[12] KCR was sworn in as the first chief minister of the Telangana state at 12.57 pm on 2 June. 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’.^[13][14][15]

Personal life

Kalvakuntla Chandrashekhar Rao is married to Shobha and has two children.^[6] His son, K. T. Rama Rao, is a legislator from Sircilla, Karimnagar district, Telangana and is the cabinet minister for IT & Panchayat Raj Departments. His daughter, Kalvakuntla Kavitha, is M.P. from Nizamabad, Telangana. His nephew, Harish Rao, is MLA for the Siddipet constituency and is now the cabinet minister for Irrigation, Legislative Affairs and Marketing in the Telangana government. KCR has 9 sisters and 1 elder brother. KCR has good command over languages Telugu, English, Urdu, and Hindi.

Political Statistics

Controversy

• In September 2014, A three-member committee of the Press Council of India headed by Rajeev Ranjan Nag held an inquiry against Telangana Chief Minister KC Rao.This was after the Chief Minister's alleged comment that if journalists insult Telangana culture or if they fail to salute the Telangana people, then he would

  break the necks and bury underground media persons.^[16]

The committee heard evidence from over a hundred people, most of them journalists.^[17] In October 2014, the committee directed the Chief Minister to inculcate restraint and refrain from making provocative remarks against journalists. In its findings, the committee noted:

The Chief Minister of Telangana did make the statements attributed to him from a public platform that he would break the necks and bury media persons and that they should salute the Telangana people if they wish to live in Telangana.^[18]

ESI Scam

K Chandrasekhara Rao was examined by CBI in connection with a SCAM related to alleged irregularities in awarding of the contract for the construction of ESI Hospitals when he was Union Labour Minister.It is suspected that the construction had resulted in loss of crores to the exchequer. ^{[19] [20] [21]}

Awards

• KCR awarded popular choice CNN-IBN Indian of the Year 2014^[22] on 17-03-2015.
• He was invited by the Singapore Govt to speak on various platforms.
• He was again invited to speak in World Economic Forum by China Govt.

Welfare Schemes and Programmes initiated as Chief Minister

1.Mission Kakatiya to fill all the tanks in the state.

2.Water grid to supply pure drinking water to all the houses in state of Telangana.

3.Three acres land to Dalit and that land is registered on Women's name in the family.

4.Kalyan Pathakam/Shaddhi Mubarak for poor SC/ST and Minority girls' marriage amount of Rs.51000/- was issued.

5.Agriculture Loan waived of 1 lakh each to farmers.

6.Started SHE teams of police department to tackle eve teasing.

7.Telangana Aasara pension increased from Rs.200 to Rs.1000.

8.Beedi Karmikula (Tobacco workers) pension increased for Rs.1000/-.

9.Pension for Handicap People to Rs.1500/-.

10.Double bedroom houses for the poor families and the house is registered on Women's name in that family.

11.Increased the salary of RTC employees by 41%

12.Increased the salary of state government employees.

13.Haritha Haram programme started by him to plant tree saplings across Telangana.

14. Thin Rice supplied to all Welfare Hostels, Anganwadi institutions also.

15. Singareni Employees got Telangana Special Bonus and also share in Singareni Profits.

16. Palamooru Lift Irrigation scheme started.

17. Celebrating Bonalu,Bhathukamma as State Festivals.

19. Celebrating P.V Narshimha Rao,Kaloji, Dhasharathi, Komaram Bheem, Chakali Ailamma, Konda Laxman Baapooji, Jayashanakar, Venktaswamy and many others Anniversaries Officially by the Govt of Telangana.

20. Supplying 24 Hours power to Industries and House Holds.

References

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