Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao is set to be sworn in as the first chief minister on June 2, the appointed day for formation of Telangana.
Since the young KCR needed a job, he hit upon a brainwave. Why not make a career out of making people find jobs? He took it seriously and opened an office at Moazam Jahi market in Hyderabad. Through his agency, he sent people abroad earning the name 'Dubai Shekar' in his native Chintamadaka village in Medak district.
Sources close to KCR recalled that some turn of events on the family front drove KCR into politics. His elder brother K Ranga Rao had already jumped into politics. Ranga Rao reportedly had a brush with the law as a result of which KCR felt he had to stand by his brother. One definite way he could be of help to him was by himself joining politics. In 1982, KCR was appointed as vice president of the State Youth Congress and that very year got elected as chairman of the Primary Agriculture Cooperative Society (PACS), Raghavpur in Medak district. The PACS provides loans to the farming community.
KCR tasted power. His confidence got a boost and he contested as an independent candidate in the 1983 assembly elections, only to lose. But he was not the one to lose heart. Since his foray into electoral politics, he has won six times from the Siddipet assembly constituency and three times as Lok Sabha member. He switched to the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in 1985 and remained in it till 2000 before quitting as deputy speaker and launching the Telangana Rashtra Samithi. During the TDP rule, he was transport minister in N Chandrababu Naidu's cabinet for three years.
KCR had also served a union labour and employment minister from May 2004 to August 2006 after having fought the 2004 elections in alliance with the Congress. When the Congress went back on its word on giving a separate Telangana state, he forged an alliance with the TDP in 2009 and fought the elections. However, the Congress came to power in the elections also. After chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy's death the same year, KCR intensified the agitation for a separate Telangana. Following the fast he undertook in December 2009, the centre announced that the process for formation of Telangana would be started. KCR fought a relentless battle and in 2014, the UPA government formally took steps to carve out a separate Telangana state. In the 2014 polls, after the bifurcation announcement was made, KCR's TRS went to polls on its own strength and won.
Little did Bhairi Kishta Reddy, a close friend of KCR during his student days, imagine that one day KCR would not only achieve a separate Telangana state with his doggedness but also rise to become the chief minister.
In Chintamadaka, KCR's village, Kishta Reddy recalled that to go to school, they had to walk 8 km every day. "He used to sing well and was also interested in dramatics. He loved playing the characters of Ravana, Duryodana and Ekalavya. During college, we used to watch a lot of movies," Kishta Reddy recalled. Such was KCR's admiration for N T Rama Rao, the top actor of that time that he named his son after his matinee idol. KCR's son K Tarakarama Rao has also followed his father into politics, having got elected from the Sircilla assembly seat twice.
Why is KCR so lean? Bhairi Kishta Reddy has the answer. "He was never a good eater. It was enough if he just tasted a dish. But not eating much was also a conscious decision because he did not want to put on weight," he said.
KCR himself made fun of lean body during electioneering. "Look at me. I am so lean but so many people want to fight me," he joked at the attempt of the BJP-TDP combine and the Congress to defeat him at the polls.
If food is something that KCR does not relish so much (and sometimes he makes do with 'mirchi' and 'bajji' snacks), sources said he has also tried to discipline his body. KCR who was a chain smoker has reportedly given up smoking, if his aides are to be believed. KCR's detractors found ammunition to target the TRS leader for his alleged drinking habit but the latest word is that he has kicked the habit. It is another matter if he decides to down a peg occasionally. But at the moment, it is KCR's time to savour his success.
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