K. Chandrashekar Rao

Rao was born to Kalvakuntla Raghava Rao and Venkatamma at Malakpet Telangana, on 17 February 1954.[6] He attained a MA degree in Literature from Osmania University, Hyderabad.[7]

K. Chandra Shekhar Rao assumes the office of Labour and Employment Minister in New Delhi on November 28, 2004

On 27 April 2001, Rao resigned as Deputy Speaker, 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 with a Promise of Congress Party to give Telangana State and Rao was one of the five TRS candidates who was returned as MPs.[12]

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.[13] 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.[14]

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 Assembly Constituency of Medak Dist of Telangana State with a majority of 19,218 and as MP from Medak 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.[15]

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’.[16][17][18] KCR was re-elected 8 times as TRS president[19]

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.[20]

In order to implement the nationwide lockdown to combat COVID-19 pandemic in India, Rao threatened that if the curfew was not followed, he would issue orders for violators of the curfew to be shot on sight.[21][22]

Kalvakuntla Chandrashekhar Rao is married to Shobha and has two children.[7] His son, K. T. Rama Rao, is a legislator from Rajanna Sircilla District, previous Karimnagar district, Telangana and is the cabinet minister for IT, Municipal Administration & Urban Development Departments. His daughter, Kalvakuntla Kavitha, is an EX M.P. from Nizamabad, Telangana. His nephew, Harish Rao, is MLA for the Siddipet constituency and is now the cabinet minister for finance, in the Telangana government. KCR has 9 sisters and 1 elder brother. KCR has good command over languages like Telugu, English, Urdu, and Hindi. He lives with his family at the official chief minister residence, Pragathi Bhavan in Hyderabad City.

• Popular Choice Award at CNN-IBN Indian of the Year 2014[23][24][25][26]
• Agricultural leadership award 2017[27]
• Economic Times Awards - Business reformer of the year 2018[28]

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

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