Kalvakuntla Chandrashekhar Rao

K. Chandrashekhar Rao
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 (Government of India)
In office 22 May 2004 – 22 May 2006
Prime Minister	Manmohan Singh
Deputy Speaker of Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly
In office 1999–2001
Minister of Transport (Government of Andhra Pradesh)
In office 1996–1999
Minister of Drought & Relief (Government of Andhra Pradesh)
In office 1987–1988
Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha
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
In office 1985–2004
Constituency	Siddipet, Andhra Pradesh (now in Telangana)
Personal details
Born	(1954-02-17) 17 February 1954 Siddipet, Hyderabad State (now Telangana, India)
Nationality	Indian
Political party	Telangana Rashtra Samithi
Spouse(s)	K. Shobha
Relations	Devanapalli Anil Kumar (son-in-law) T. Harish Rao (nephew)
Children	K. T. Rama Rao (son) K. Kavitha (daughter)
Residence	Hyderabad, Telangana, India
Alma mater	Osmania University

Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao (born 17 February 1954), better known and abbreviated as K.C.R.,^[1][2][3] is the 1st and the current Chief Minister of Telangana, after the Telangana state got separated from Andhra Pradesh. He is the leader and 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 Siddipet 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.^[5]

Early life

Rao was born on 17 February 1954 in Chintamadaka village, Siddipeta Mandal, Medak District of Telangana State.^[6][7] He attained a Masters degree in Literature from Osmania Arts College-Osmania University, Hyderabad.^[8]

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.^[9]

Telangana Rashtra Samithi

On 27 April 2001, Rao resigned as Deputy Speaker, tdp and TDP Party as well.^[10] He stood for the people of the Telangana region were being discriminated and believed that separate state is the only solution.^[11] In April 2001, he formed the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) Party at Jala Drushyam, Hyderabad to achieve Telangana statehood.^[10]

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.^[12]

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.^[13] 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.^[9] 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 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.^[14] 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’.^[15][16][17] KCR re-elected 8 time as TRS president ^[18]

Personal life

Kalvakuntla Chandrashekhar Rao is married to Shobha and has two children.^[8] His son, K. T. Rama Rao, is a legislator from Sircilla, Karimnagar district, Telangana and is the cabinet minister for IT, Municipal Administration & Urban Development Departments. His daughter, Kalvakuntla Kavitha, is an 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 in Velama Dora family. KCR has good command over languages Telugu, English, Urdu, and Hindi.

Political statistics

Awards

CNN-IBN Indian of the Year 2014^{[19][20][21][22]}

External links

• KCR: The man who revived Telangana movement; Hindustan Times, Feb 21, 2014.

References

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