A COMBATIVE HEAD START

KCR IS SEEKING A THIRD TERM, BANKING ON A SLEW OF SOCIAL WELFARE SCHEMES AND STATEHOOD EMOTIONS, BUT ALLEGATIONS OF CORRUPTION AND ANTI-INCUMBENCY MAY STYMIE HIS HAT-TRICK

- AMARNATH K. MENON

"The people of Telangana have blessed KCR twice. Are you ready to do so a third time? This will be the first hat-trick for a chief minister in south India.” It is with this impassioned appeal that the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) is going to the people, seeking votes for its founder and chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao—popularly known as KCR— who is fighting for a third successive term in the state that goes to the polls on November 30. The appeal is underlined by a catalogue of Direct Benefit Transfer schemes that KCR has initiated for the state’s marginalised communities.