Hyderabad Blues

He may have won Telangana twice for fighting for its creation, but K Chandrashekar Rao's changing persona has cost him dearly

- Anisha Reddy

“GALLI mein bolo, Dilli mein bolo, Jai Telangana, Jai Telangana” (Say it on the streets, say it in Delhi, victory to Telangana, victory to Telangana). This was the slogan that student leaders, activists and supporters shouted in unison on June 2, 2014, when the 29th state was carved out of Andhra Pradesh. The landscape was pink, and it was in favour of Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao, popularly known as KCR. The leader entered public and political consciousness with one aim, and with one aim only: to form a separate state for the four crore people who he said had been “discriminated” in undivided Andhra Pradesh.

His followers—from children to their grandparents—called him ‘Telangana Tiger’ and ‘Telangana Gandhi’; for them, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) was synonymous with KCR. But now, the road ahead for this regional party appears to be difficult after the state voted out its ‘tiger’ in the 2023 assembly elections.

Once with the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), and then with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), KCR formed the TRS (now Bharat Rashtra Samithi or BRS) in 2001 with the purpose of working towards a bangaru (meaning golden in Telugu) Telangana, wherein the social aspirations of marginalised communities would be fulfilled. It joined hands with the Congress-led UPA in 2004, and then with the BJP-led NDA in 2009, but both alliances didn’t reap any electoral dividends.