Kalvakuntla Chandrasekhara Rao, who yesterday took over as the first chief minister of Telangana, is a man with an indomitable spirit
Kalvakuntla Chandrasekhara Rao,
Kalvakuntla Chandrasekhara Rao, who yesterday took over as the first chief minister of Telangana, is a man with an indomitable spirit.
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When he quit the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) to float Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and revive the movement for Telangana state in 2001, few had believed that he would achieve his goal, given the chequered history of the movement.
The frail-looking Rao was till then not a very popular leader of Telangana but he proved a huge crowd-puller and single-handedly made ‘Jai Telangana’ a household slogan. Even his bitter critics admit that the credit of taking Telangana movement to every nook and corner of the region goes to KCR, as the 60-year-old is popularly known.
It is no wonder that KCR, who was all alone when he started the journey, recited this Urdu couplet at his meetings. “Mein akela hi chala tha janib manzil magar/Log saath ate gae aur karwan banta gaya”.
With the formation of Telangana as the 29th state of India, KCR has achieved his goal and by taking oath as the first chief minister of the new state, he has embarked on a journey to rebuild the state.
If Telangana will go down in the history as one of the world’s mass movements, KCR will be remembered for reviving the movement for a separate state 14 years ago.