JOIN USRao rajya: Has ‘CM-in-waiting’ KT Rama Rao’s time come?
On June 22, KT Rama Rao sat on a new tractor flanked by people on either side in a factory. “Was delighted to launch the 3,00,001st @MahindraRise tractor made in Telangana at Zaheerabad today,” tweeted the Telangana IT-industries minister and added: “Hey Anand Mahindra Ji, you may have to bring more business to my state for the way I’ve been posing & marketing your products”
Mahindra replied a little while later, terming KTR a “phenomenal brand ambassador”. His only “concern”, tweeted Mahindra, is that KTR may be “stolen” by “Tollywood empire!”
It was good fun, and it was typical KTR: Working the platform to showcase himself, his government and seeking investments.
But Mahindra need not be ‘concerned’ as the 46-year-old is not looking to storm Tollywood, but is waiting to occupy the CM’s chair that will be vacated by his father and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao at an unknown date. For that, preparations are under way, with the Bharatiya Rashtra Samiti idea being seen as an honourable way out for KCR.
While the senior Rao can become the BRS national president, junior can take over the reins in Telangana, a script that is as Tollywood-like as it is inevitable.
The rise
Kalvakuntla Taraka Rama Rao was born in Siddipet, the family's home turf, in 1976. According to some Telangana Congress leaders, he was originally named Ajay, but KCR changed it later to gain the attention of actor-turned-politician and TDP founder Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao (NTR), a claim ridiculed by the TRS.
With two post-graduate degrees — MSc in Biotechnology and an MBA in Marketing — KTR joined the corporate world in 2001 and was associated with INTTRA till 2006.
That very year, as KCR was facing a crucial bye-election after resigning from the UPA-I Cabinet, KTR plunged into the rough and tumble of politics.
KTR scraped through in his poll debut in 2009, winning from Sircilla, known for its weaving industry, with a margin of mere 171 votes. He went on to win two more times from the constituency.
Once Telangana came into being and KCR became the CM in 2014, KTR was made the minister for IT, Panchayat Raj and Rural Development. Various other important portfolios like municipal administration and urban development have been handed to KTR since then, in an apparent bid to prepare him for the CM post.
To his credit, KTR has been managing his portfolios, especially IT industries, well, and jet-setting constantly to meet corporate leaders. In the state, he is always seen inaugurating a flyover or a new industrial unit.
IT and Industries officials are quick to credit KTR for almost every reform, be it TS-iPASS, which legally enforces ‘Ease of Doing Business’ for industry, or T-Hub “the largest incubator in India for start-ups”.
But KTR concern spreads across departments. Every so often, he sends out a message “requesting” the tourism minister to initiate an attractive project or ask the home minister to do his job.
BJP, Congress leaders accuse the CM and “super CM” KTR of reducing their Cabinet colleagues to dummies.
Like father, like son
Till now, KTR has been playing the supportive role expected of a son. But he is now stepping up, taking on the Modi government, KCR’s current adversary, on a range of issues, from Agnipath to privatisation of PSUs.
KTR has inherited the gift of gab from his father. He can impress with his eloquent English and business pitches but can also hurl the occasional expletive in rustic Telugu.
On Twitter, he is very active, entertaining his 3.4 mn followers with potshots, friendly banter with corporate honchos and belittling other cities’ infrastructure like Bengaluru.
He also uses the medium to reach out to people in need.
KTR is accused of becoming a parallel power centre in the party and government, but he is also the working president and heir apparent.
The reason why the doting dad had put the son's elevation on hold, analysts say, was fearing a challenge from within the family: KCR's nephew Thanneeru Harish Rao.
Considered a mass leader with good organisational skills, Thanneeru is the state's finance and health minister, though his clout in TRS seems to have diminished lately. Some say he was deliberately and systematically sidelined to make the ascent easier for KTR.
Even now it is not clear as to when exactly “the crowning” will take place.
“Successful as he might appear, KTR is a peace-time leader unlike his father KCR, a war veteran. KCR's apprehension is whether KTR can handle the BJP threat and internal dissidence efficiently once he hands over the control,” a noted political analyst told DH.