Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao

Early life

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

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.

Telangana Rashtra Samithi

On 27 April 2001, Rao resigned as Deputy Speaker, tdp and TDP Party as well. He stood for the people of the Telangana region were being discriminated and believed that 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 and Rao was one of the five TRS candidates who were returned as MPs.

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. 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. 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. 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’. KCR re-elected 8 time as TRS president

Personal life

Kalvakuntla Chandrashekhar Rao is married to Shobha and has two children. 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
• Agricultural leadership award 2017