KCR: The man with unbending will

When he floated the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) in 2001, the political circuit scoffed at him. Detractors made light of his ‘mission Telangana’ and were almost certain that his dream project would fall flat.

Cut to May 16, 2014 and this adamant, individualistic Kalvakuntla Chandrasekhar Rao is all set to don the mantle of the first chief minister of Telangana, the 29th state of India. He has not only convincingly won from the Gajwel Assembly constituency in Medak district, by a margin of 19,391 votes over his TDP rival Pratap Reddy, but has pocketed the Medak Lok Sabha seat by a neat margin of 3,97,029 votes. Clearly, KCR has managed to silence all who doubted him and his objective – of separate statehood for Telangana.

But the road to the top hasn’t been a rosy one for this 60-year-old post-graduate, in Telugu literature, from Osmania University who started off with a consultancy firm in Hyderabad which earned him the title of ‘Dubai Sekhar’. But even while he was sending people to foreign shores for jobs, this young man from Chintamadaka village of Siddipet in Medak district had a keen eye on the political goings-on in the state too and was a follower of Congressman and former minister Ananthula Madan Mohan. In the 1983 Assembly elections, KCR stunned observers by managing to secure 27,899 votes against heavyweight Madan Mohan’s 28,766. He fought as an independent from Siddipet.

In 1985, KCR returned to the fray as a TDP nominee and, this time, sent Congress’ T Mahender Reddy packing. But the best was yet to come. That happened in 1989 when KCR trounced his own guru Madan Mohan who had to be content with 39,329 votes, as opposed to his disciple’s magnificent 53,145. KCR had arrived in style. Over the next three by-polls – in 1994, 1999 and 2001 -the winning streak continued.

The TRS party took birth when a piqued KCR quit the deputy speaker’s post in April 2001 for being denied a cabinet berth by TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu, post the 1999 elections. His mantra: upholding the Telangana pride.

Of course, his ideology was dismissed by all and sundry initially who claimed that KCR was only hankering after power and that the struggle for a separate Telangana under his TRS would get nowhere. The man himself, however, never gave up. In the 2004 elections, he contested from the Karimnagar Lok Sabha seat and also Siddipet Assembly constituency and won both. He silenced all, again.

But KCR made one mistake. He tied up with the Congress hoping that the national party would help him realize his ‘T’ dream. But that was not to be. In protest, he quit his post as Union minister (labour) in 2006. There was another alliance with the TDP in 2009, which too didn’t last long.

Predictably, the ‘master strategist’, as KCR is popularly known, decided to go all alone this year and the results only reiterate his political wisdom.

What also worked for the man was his sheer dedication to the cause of Telangana and the way he created pressure on the UPA government to grant his wish of separate statehood. In November 2009 he undertook an indefinite fast that lasted for 11 days and when his condition was said to be deteriorating, Union minister P Chidambaram had to make a late night announcement on December 9 in favour of Telangana.

But KCR soon realized that wasn’t enough. He soon persuaded all his party legislators to give up their Assembly seats and seek fresh mandate. There was also a series of agitations that followed to keep the pressure on UPA alive. KCR also lured the Congress with the proposition to merge with it, in case they granted his T wish. Congress bit the bait and Telangana became a reality on July 30, 2013. And once the job was done, KCR, interestingly, withdrew his merger proposal. Of course, the results indicate, that a partnership wasn’t really necessary in the first place.

So finally, though critics often call him arrogant and accuse him of having an acerbic tongue, analysts stress it is the man’s oratory skills and emotionally-charged election rallies that won him the landslide victory on Friday.

However, winning is not all for KCR. “The first responsibility would be to take care of the families of those who laid down their lives for the cause of Telangana. We will also look into the police cases filed against those who participated in the movement,” KCR said. He knows, he has a role cut out for him as chief minister and KCR has enough confidence that he can take the state forward.

Source: Time Of India
Ch Sushil Rao,TNN