With Delhi dreams, KCR hops on national highway

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has been a busy man of late, managing to make news even as the airwaves have been swamped over the war in Ukraine and the Assembly polls in five states.

Jet-setting to state capitals often to meet his counterparts, KCR, as he is popularly known, is a man on a mission.

He has bared his fangs and ambitions: to go national to take on his new enemy, the BJP.

At rallies in Telangana, he has tried to sound noble, tying his aspirations to the country's development.

Also Read | Don't call it anti-BJP, KCR now on his 'federal front' endeavor

“We in Telangana are surging ahead in all sectors. The nation should also develop. We should strive for an India which would become greater than the USA,” KCR said recently.

On KCR's menu is a federal front, seemingly a more serious enterprise than what he attempted just before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. And KCR's focus of attack has been none other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Hence the parleys with Modi detractors: Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray, BJP MP Subramanian Swamy, farmer leader Rakesh Tikait and Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren in the last fortnight.

But what role could KCR expect representing a state having only 17 Lok Sabha seats? The leaders he is associating with — Mamata Banerjee, Thackeray, DMK chief MK Stalin — all have far higher prospects in the numbers game, in the event of a non-Congress, non-BJP led government formation at the Centre.

“The question of who becomes the PM is for a later day. Till then, the united fight is for people's issues,” a TRS lawmaker told DH.

Early years

KCR's first brush with politics was when he joined the Youth Congress but that didn't last long. Soon after, he joined the TDP in 1983. In 1985, he contested from Siddipet Assembly seat on a TDP ticket and emerged victoriously, and there was no turning back.

He has won four times from the seat since 1985 and served as a minister in NT Rama Rao and Chandrababu Naidu Cabinets in undivided Andhra Pradesh.

In 2001, KCR set up the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) after being denied a Cabinet berth by the then CM Chandrababu Naidu. The gamble paid off as the party managed to win five Lok Sabha and 26 Assembly seats in the 2004 polls.

The turning point in his political career was when the Telangana movement was raging. KCR undertook a “fast unto death” deeksha in November 2009, after the death of YS Rajasekhar Reddy in a chopper crash.

The fast and student protests prompted the UPA-II to announce steps to create Telangana.

After the creation of Telangana in 2014, KCR, seen as the political face of the statehood movement, made the TRS stronger by encouraging defections from the TDP and the Congress. In 2018 polls, the TRS won 88 Assembly seats but the ruling side's strength now is 103, again a result of defections.

Credibility question

KCR is tenacious and not afraid of taking the fight to the enemy's camp. This trait he shares with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata, another ally who is at loggerheads with the BJP.

A keen reader with a Master's in Telugu, KCR is knowledgeable on many subjects and has the gift of the gab; he can also unleash profanities with ease at his detractors.

Unlike other leaders from the south, he is proficient both in English and Hindi, a talent he believes would put him at an advantage in national politics. And he has the remarkable, often criticised ability to contradict his own statements.

People who were once close to him say that he operates with two agendas: one for public consumption and the real one suiting his interests.

KCR also has the habit of burning bridges.

For example, he had allied with Chandrababu once, but in 2018 he called him Shani (lord of misfortune).

When the Bill to form Telangana was in the making, KCR said he would merge the TRS with the Congress. Later, he was accused of breaking that promise once Andhra Pradesh was bifurcated. Though KCR thanked Sonia Gandhi in 2014, she was attacked by the TRS during the 2018 polls.

“KCR is a typical politician. And he has his reasons, situations, and electoral compulsions for changing stand every time,” a senior party leader said.

Analysts say KCR is engaging the services of political strategist Prashant Kishor to install himself as a credible leader on the national stage while helping him deal with the BJP threat within the state.

The view in Telangana is that KCR is looking at the larger picture. After serving as the CM for about 10 years, KCR would want an important role at the Centre. When that moment arrives, he would hand over the state's reins to his son, Rama Rao aka KTR, and proceed to Delhi.

Check out the latest videos from DH: