Congress Party Rao started his career with the
Youth Congress in
Medak. He also served as the Deputy Speaker of the Andhra Pradesh Assembly from 2000 to 2001.
Jai Telangana movement On 27 April 2001, Rao resigned from the Telugu Desam Party, leaving his position of Deputy Speaker. He stated that the people of the Telangana region were being discriminated against and believed that a separate state was the only solution. The same day, he formed the
Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) Party (now called the
Bharat Rashtra Samithi) at Jala Drushyam, Hyderabad to achieve Telangana statehood. TRS was part of the
United Progressive Alliance coalition government, led by Congress. Rao went on to become a Union Cabinet Minister of Labour and Employment in the UPA government. In 2009, Rao won the
Mahbubnagar Lok Sabha elections. In November 2009, he started a hunger strike, demanding the introduction of the Telangana Bill in the Indian Parliament. Eleven days later, the Central Government initiated the process to grant Telangana statehood. In Telangana, the TRS, which led the campaign for a separate state for over a decade, received the most votes, winning 11 of the 17 Lok Sabha seats and 63 of the 119 Assembly seats.
Foray into national politics In May 2019, ahead of the
2019 Indian general election, Rao attempted to set up Federal Front along with leaders of other
regional political parties. The Front's aim was to bring a non-
Congress, non-
BJP alliance to power in the
Central Government of India. In June 2022, Rao announced plans for a national party. On 5 October 2022, the day of
Vijayadashami, he renamed his party to
Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) at the party's Executive Council Meeting.
Chief Minister of Telangana (2014–2023) in Hyderabad Metro in 2017 Rao was sworn in as the first chief minister of the Telangana state on 2 June 2014. Rao, a staunch believer in
astrology,
numerology and
vaastu, is reported to have fixed 12:57 PM for his inauguration as per the advice of priests to suit his lucky number 'six', since the sum of the digits is 'fifteen' and '1+5=6.' In September 2018, he dissolved the
Telangana Legislative Assembly, nine months before its term ends to go for an early election. In December 2018, he was re-elected as Chief Minister for the second term, after winning the
2018 Telangana Legislative Assembly election by a big margin. Rao shaped the Telangana state to a high degree of development both economically and culturally, right from the formative years of the state since 2014. His welfare programs are aimed at reviving the
rural economy and are focused on the development of each community. An intensive household survey, Samagra Kutumba Survey (SKS) was done in a single day on 19 August 2014 across the state to arrive at citizen information for rolling out welfare programs. The data collected pertaining to 94 parameters, covered one crore four lakh households in the State. Rao had revived the Telangana history, culture and festivals. The native festival
Bathukamma, the festival of flowers and Shakti, was declared as a state festival. In 2017, he declared
Urdu to be the second official language of Telangana. The government spent Rs. 1,200 crore for the expansion of the
Yadadri temple. The Rao government has been described as
populist, launching several welfare schemes. Rao launched the
Aarogya Lakshmi scheme on 1 January 2015. He launched multiple welfare schemes, such as the
Double Bedroom Housing scheme, which aims to end slums in Telangana by providing free housing to the poor, the
Kalyana Lakshmi - Shaadi Mubarak scheme, providing assistance to newlywed couples, the
Rythu Bandhu scheme, providing assistance to farmers, and
Aasara pension scheme, providing pensions to all senior citizens were also launched by the Rao government. On 16 August 2021, he launched the Dalit Bandu Scheme.
Post chief minister role (2024–present) In the
December 2023 Telangana Legislative elections, he contested from both
Gajwel and
Kamareddy constituencies. He won from Gajwel by defeating
Etela Rajender, a former member of his party, by 45553 votes. In a major face-off, the two major candidates for the post of
Chief Minister of Telangana KCR and
Revanth Reddy were contesting against each other in the seat of Kamareddy. They both lost to
K. V. Ramana Reddy, a member of the
BJP. After his defeat to the
Indian National Congress, he submitted his resignation on 3 December 2023 and Revanth Reddy formed the
new ministry. KCR took on a new role as
leader of the opposition in the
Telangana Legislative Assembly after his defeat, on 16 December 2023. Rao, who had previously stayed off social media, joined
X (Twitter) and
Instagram on 27 April 2024, coinciding with his party's 23rd anniversary in an attempt to reach more people. In June 2024, he declined an invitation by
Chief Minister to participate in the
state celebrations marking 10 years of the
formation of the state and chose to participate in his party's celebrations. In the
2024 Indian general elections, his party failed to secure a single seat, despite contesting in all 17 of
Telangana's Lok Sabha Constituencies, compared to the 9 seats they won in the
previous elections. == Personal life ==