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Journalism of Courage
TELENGANA Rashtriya Samiti President K Chandrashekhar Rao is seen in two different lights in Andhra Pradesh. In the Telengana region, he is still the hero of the Telengana cause. In the rest of the state, he is seen as the man intent on splitting Andhra Pradesh.
Starting his political career as a student Congress leader, Chandrashekhar Rao has been MLA four times over for Telugu Desam Party, which he joined in its formative years inspired by its founder N T Rama Rao.
Loved or hated, over the years, the 52-year-old KCR has come to be recognised as a master political strategist.
KCR8217;s real claim to fame began five years ago when he threw up the deputy speaker8217;s position in the Andhra Pradesh assembly, resigned from the legislature and quit N Chandrababu Naidu8217;s Telugu Desam Party to re-boot the demand for a separate Telengana state-a movement buried for nearly three decades.
On April 27, 2001, KCR launched the TRS, a political platform with the 8220;one-point agenda8221; of creating a separate state for the 30 million people in the Telengana region. Rao claimed that his move was a result of the TDP8217;s neglect of the impoverished Telengana belt.
His critics saw KCR8217;s move to float the TRS as an attempt to re-launch his own political career after being sidelined in the TDP by Chandrababu Naidu.
The popularity of Rao8217;s move was immediately apparent, with as many as 19 lakh people from the Telangana districts enrolling in the party within four days of formation.
IN the run-up to the 2004 elections, the TRS gathered so much steam that it forced the Congress to enter into a pre-poll alliance with the party. The TRS did fare exceedingly well in the polls, winning 26 Assembly seats and five parliamentary seats. But with the Congress too doing extremely well, the TRS victory did not bring in the bargaining power KCR had expected.
The Telangana movement itself slowly began losing its edge and KCR agreed that his party would go by the recommendations of the second States Re-organisation Commission SRC on its demand for a separate state.
Over the past two years, KCR has chosen to lie largely dormant. Though named as part of the UPA Union cabinet, KCR8217;s mind has been on the politics in his home state. He was initially shipping minister before giving it up to be a minister without a portfolio and subsequently labour and employment minister. KCR8217;s disconnect with his ministry and the parliament has earned him the tag 8220;absentee minister8221;.
In a move to prove that he has not lost sight of his one-point agenda to create a separate Telangana state, KCR on July 4, 2005, withdrew his alliance with the Congress in AP and forced six of his MLAs to resign from the Y S Rajashekhar Reddy ministry. One of the many other reasons behind the move was also a Naxal threat to the lives of TRS leaders.
However, the lull in the Telangana movement had its biggest effect earlier this year when the TRS fared poorly in local elections.
KCR8217;s recent exit from the UPA ministry along with fellow minister A Narendra is seen as the fallout of the TRS losing political ground in Telengana.
