HYDERABAD: The elevation of Kalvakuntla Taraka Rama Rao — popularly known as KTR — is neither unexpected nor it has come too early. Neither can the rise of the 42-year-old leader, to the status of working president of TRS, be attributed to the fact that he is the son of the party founder and president K Chandrasekhar Rao.
KTR studied in St George’s Grammar School in Hyderabad and for his baccalaureate, he joined the Nizam College. He also holds two post-graduate degrees — an MSc biotechnology and an MBA from the City University of New York. He worked in the USA between 2001 and 2006.
His father K Chandrasekhar Rao had established the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, for achieving Statehood for the region, in 2001. The movement had gathered momentum by 2006 and Rama Rao felt the need to join his father’s cause. He applied for a long leave of three months, but his application was denied. Seeing no other way, he resigned and returned home.
Three years later, Rama Rao contested the first elections of his life from Sircilla Assembly constituency. It was a hard-fought victory; he won by a wafer-thin margin of just 171 votes. Just ten months after the elections, he, like many other legislators in Telangana, resigned protesting the delay in State formation. In the ensuing by-elections in 2010, Rao won with a massive 68,000 margin this time.
After a 13 year long movement, the dream of Telangana had finally come true. TRS got a comfortable majority in the Assembly elections that year and formed the government without any trouble. The first CM of the State chose to give his son KTR the important portfolios of Information Technology, Industries and Municipal Administration & Urban Development. He was widely appreciated for his work as IT Minister. Two years down the road, in 2016, Rama Rao was given the responsibility to run TRS’ campaign for the GHMC elections.
His biggest test was, however, the recent Assembly elections. During the run-up to it, he was the man responsible to quell dissidence rising from ticket allocation. Source say Chandrasekhar Rao would ask leaders to meet his son first and come to him later if their issues still didn’t get resolved.From joining the movement in 2006, when Statehood looked like a distant dream, to being named the party’s working president, Rama Rao has had quite an eventful career.
The ‘Son’ always rises
KT Rama Rao’s succession of his father K Chandrasekhar Rao is not an isolated case. From Tamil Nadu’s DMK to Andhra Pradesh’s Telugu Desam Party,a look at other regional parties in India where sons have taken over the mantle...
DMK
DMK supremo M Karunanidhi designated his son MK Stalin as working president of the party in 2017. Karunanidhi also made Stalin Deputy Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, the first ever in the State. After Karunanidhi’s death in August this year, Stalin has become president of the party.
TELUGU DESAM PARTY
TDP president and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu recently sent his son Nara Lokesh to the AP Legislative Council and even made an IT minister, not unlike KTR.
SAMAJWADI PARTY
Samajwadi Party had a major make-over in 2012, when party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav cleared the way for his son Akhilesh Yadav to become the Chief Minister, the youngest ever in the State.
JANATA DAL (SECULAR)
While former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda happens to be the president of Janata Dal(S), it is his son, current Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumara Swamy, who calls all the shots in the party.
RASHTRIYA JANATA DAL
Though Lalu Prasad Yadav is still the president of RJD in 1997, a party he founded, he ensured his son Tejashwi Yadav was made Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar in Nitish Kumar’s government. Yadav lost his position after Kumar’s Jantha Dal(United) and RJD parted ways.
NATIONAL CONFERENCE
National Conference was founded in 1932 by Sheikh Abdullah, who went to serve as Prime Minister, and later Chief Minister, of Jammu and Kashmir in independent India. Later, his son Farooq Abdullah led the party. Now, his grandson Omar Abdullah is running the party as vice president.
SHIROMANI AKALI DAL
After Prakash Singh Badal, his son Sukhbir Singh Badal took the reins of the party and also worked as Deputy Chief Minister. Sukhbir Singh Badal’s wife Harsimrat Kaur Badal was also active in politics and served as a Union Minister.
INDIAN NATIONAL LOK DAL
Choudhary Devi Lal’s son Om Prakash Chautala is now CM of Haryana. Chautala’s son Ajay Singh is the party general secretary.