K. Chandrashekar Rao

He is the founder and leader of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi, a state party in India. He was the first Chief Minister of Telangana after the formation of the state and held the position for almost 10 years. He was the leader of the Telangana Movement, the region's fight for a separate state.

K. Chandrashekar Rao
Official portrait, April 2017
3rd Leader of the Opposition Telangana Legislative Assembly
Incumbent
Assumed office 9 December 2023
Governor	Tamilisai Soundararajan
Chief Minister	Revanth Reddy
Preceded by	Vacant Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka (2018-19)
President of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi
Incumbent
Assumed office 5 October 2022
Working President	K. T. Rama Rao
Preceded by	Office Established
1st Chief Minister of Telangana
In office 2 June 2014 – 7 December 2023
Governor	E. S. L. Narasimhan Dr. Tamilisai Soundararajan
Deputy	M. Mahmood Ali (until 12 December 2018) T. Rajaiah (until 25 January 2015) Kadiyam Srihari (until 12 December 2018)
Preceded by	Office Established (Kiran Kumar Reddy as Chief Minister of United Andhra Pradesh)
Succeeded by	Anumula Revanth Reddy
Member of the Telangana Legislative Assembly
Incumbent
Assumed office 2 June 2014
Preceded by	Tumkunta Narsa Reddy
Constituency	Gajwel
Union Minister of Labour & Employment
In office 27 November 2004 – 24 August 2006
Prime Minister	Manmohan Singh
Preceded by	Sis Ram Ola
Succeeded by	Manmohan Singh
Union Minister of Ports, Shipping & Waterways
In office 22 May 2004 – 25 May 2004
Prime Minister	Manmohan Singh
Preceded by	Shatrughan Sinha
Succeeded by	T. R. Baalu
Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha
In office 2009–2014
Preceded by	D. Vittal Rao
Succeeded by	A. P. Jithender Reddy
Constituency	Mahbubnagar
In office 2004–2009
Preceded by	C. Vidyasagar Rao
Succeeded by	Ponnam Prabhakar
Constituency	Karimnagar
President of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi
In office 27 April 2001 – 5 October 2022
Working President	K. T. Rama Rao (from 15 December 2018)
Preceded by	Office Established
Succeeded by	Office Abolished
15th Deputy Speaker of Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly
In office 1999–2001
Speaker	Yanamala Rama Krishnudu (1995 - 1999) K. Pratibha Bharati (1999 - 2004)
Preceded by	N. Mohammed Farook
Succeeded by	Koppula Harishwar Reddy
Minister of Transport Government of Andhra Pradesh
In office 1 September 1995 – 11 October 1999
Governor	Krishan Kant Gopala Ramanujam C. Rangarajan
Chief Minister	N. Chandrababu Naidu
Preceded by	P. Chandrasekhar
Succeeded by	Alimineti Madhava Reddy
Minister of Drought & Relief Government of Andhra Pradesh
In office 1987–1988
Governor	Kumudben Joshi
Chief Minister	N. T. Rama Rao
Member of Legislative Assembly Andhra Pradesh
In office 1985–2004
Preceded by	Ananthula Madan Mohan
Succeeded by	T. Harish Rao
Constituency	Siddipet
Personal details
Born	(1954-02-17) 17 February 1954 (age 70) Chintamadaka, Hyderabad State, (present-day Telangana) India
Political party	Bharat Rashtra Samithi (Since 2001)
Other political affiliations	Indian National Congress (1980–1983) Telugu Desam Party (1983–2001)
Spouse	K. Shobha
Children	K. T. Rama Rao (son) K. Kavitha (daughter)
Relatives	K. Himanshu Rao (grandchild) T. Harish Rao (nephew) Joginapally Santosh Kumar (nephew)
Alma mater	Osmania University

Rao was born to Raghava Rao and Venkatamma on 17 February 1954 in Chintamadaka village, Hyderabad State (present-day Telangana). He is of the Velama caste. Rao has nine sisters and one elder brother. He attained an MA degree in Telugu literature from Osmania University, Hyderabad.

Congress Party

Rao started his career with the Youth Congress in Medak. He stood by Indira Gandhi even after her defeat in the 1977 Lok Sabha polls.

Independent Candidate

In the 1983 Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly elections, Rao contested as an independent candidate in the Siddipet Assembly constituency. He lost to Ananthula Madan Mohan, a Congress candidate and a person he considered as his "guru", by just 877 votes.

Telugu Desam Party

After the contest, in 1983, Rao joined the Telugu Desam Party (TDP). He won four Assembly elections from Siddipet, consecutively, from 1985 to 1999. From 1987 to 1988, he served as the Minister of Drought & Relief in Chief Minister N. T. Rama Rao's cabinet. In 1990, he was appointed TDP convener for Medak, Nizamabad, and Adilabad districts. In 1996, he served as Transport minister in Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu's cabinet. He also served as the deputy speaker of the Andhra Pradesh Assembly from 2000 to 2001.

Jai Telangana movement

 

On 27 April 2001, Rao resigned from the Telugu Desam Party, leaving his position of Deputy Speaker as well. He asserted that the people of the Telangana region were being discriminated and believed that a separate state is the only solution. The same day, he formed the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) Party (now called the Bharat Rashtra Samithi) at Jala Drushyam, Hyderabad to achieve Telangana statehood. In the 2004 elections, he won from Siddipet and also the Karimnagar Lok Sabha constituency by-election, 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.

TRS was part of the United Progressive Alliance coalition government, led by Congress. Rao went on to become a Union Cabinet minister of Labour and Employment in the UPA government. The party later withdrew from the coalition, saying that the Alliance was not minded to support a separate Telangana state. 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.

In 2014, Rao was elected as MLA from Gajwel with a majority of 19,391 and as MP from Medak with a majority of 397,029 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.

Foray into national politics

In May 2019, ahead of the 2019 Indian general election, Rao attempted to set up Federal Front along with leaders of other regional political parties. The Front's aim was to bring a non-Congress, non-BJP alliance to power at the Central Government of India.

Bharat Rashtra Samithi

In June 2022, Rao announced to float a national party Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS). On 5 October 2022, at the day of Vijayadashami, he renamed his party to Bharat Rashtra Samithi on party's Executive Council Meeting.

 

Rao 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'. He was re-elected eight times as TRS president. In September 2018, he dissolved the Telangana Legislative Assembly, nine months before its term ends to go for an early election, in a move that has been called a masterstroke. In December 2018, he was re-elected as Chief Minister for the second term, after winning the 2018 Telangana Legislative Assembly election by a big margin.

Rao shaped the Telangana state to a high degree of development both economically and culturally, right from the formative years of the state since 2014. 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.

Rao had revived the Telangana history, culture and festivals. The native festival Bathukamma, the festival of flowers and Shakti, was declared as a state festival. In 2017, he declared Urdu to be the second official language of Telangana. The government spent Rs. 1,200 crore for the expansion of the Yadadri temple.

The Rao government has been described as populist, launching several welfare schemes.

Rao launched the Aarogya Lakshmi scheme on 1 January 2015. He launched multiple welfare schemes, such as the Double Bedroom Housing scheme, which aims to end slums in Telangana by providing free housing to the poor, the Kalyana Lakshmi - Shaadi Mubarak scheme, providing assistance to newlywed couples, the Rythu Bandhu scheme, providing assistance to farmers, and Aasara pension scheme, providing pensions to all senior citizens were also launched by the Rao government. On August 16, 2021, he launched the Dalit Bandu Scheme.

In 2023 elections, he contested from Gajwel and Kamareddy constituencies. He won Gajwel, but lost Kamareddy to Etela Rajender, a former member of his party. As his party Bharat Rashtra Samithi was defeated by Indian National Congress led by Revanth Reddy, he submitted his resignation on 3 December 2023.

Rao is married to Shobha and has two children. His son, K. T. Rama Rao is a legislator from Sircilla. He was the cabinet minister for IT, Municipal Administration & Urban Development in Telangana second assembly. His daughter, Kavitha, served as M.P. from Nizamabad and is currently serving as a Member of Legislative Council, Nizamabad. His nephew, Harish Rao, is MLA from Siddipet. He served as Telangana's cabinet minister for finance in second assembly of Telangana. He is proficient in Telugu, English, Urdu, and Hindi. He lives with his family at his farm house at Erravelli in Medak district.

In 2015, Rao adopted Pratyusha, who was rescued from domestic violence. She was married in 2020.

In December 2023, he suffered a hip fracture after a fall at his farmhouse in Erravelli. He was admitted to Yashoda Hospitals, Hyderabad for treatment and was discharged after a week.

Rao is a Gandhian. He has credited Mahatma Gandhi's ideology for inspiring him in his non-violent Telangana movement.

Rao has described Rahul Gandhi as the "biggest buffoon in the country". He has described Narendra Modi as the "most ineffective PM" in Indian history.

Rao is follower of Sri Vaishnavism of Ramanuja, an ardent devotee of his guru Chinna Jeeyar and a strong believer of Hinduism and spirituality. To heighten spiritual consciousness, KCR initiated the reconstruction and renovation of significant temples across Telangana, including Yadadri, Kondagattu, and Vemulawada, among others.

Rao gave lyrics for the song "Garadi chesthundru" from the film Jai Bolo Telangana (2011), and wrote a song in Kolimi (2015). He also gave lyrics for songs to promote Mission Kakatiya and for his 2018 poll campaign.

• Popular Choice Award at CNN-IBN Indian of the Year 2014
• Agricultural leadership award 2017
• Economic Times Awards – Business reformer of the year 2018