Hyderabad: For the first time in two decades, the family of former Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao (KCR) is not in the electoral fray in the Lok Sabha elections 2024. No member of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) founder’s family has filed nomination for the May 13 Lok Sabha elections in the state. This is the first time since the formation of TRS (now BRS) in 2001 that the KCR family is out of the electoral contest.
After 2004, every time a family member contested elections
After 2004, every time a former Chief Minister or a member of his family contested a Lok Sabha or Assembly election. To revive the Telangana movement and form his own party TRS, KCR resigned from the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and contested the Lok Sabha elections. Elections from Karimnagar and Assembly elections from Siddipet. He was elected from both the seats, but later left the Siddipet seat and became a minister in the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre.
KCR’s nephew and TRS leader Harish Rao was elected from Siddipet in the by-election. The TRS founder won two by-elections in Karim Nagar in 2006 and 2008 following differences with the Congress over the Telangana issue. In 2009, KCR was elected to the Lok Sabha from Mahabubnagar. During this tenure he was successful in achieving the goal of Telangana state. KCR’s son KT. Rama Rao made his electoral debut by winning the Sircilla assembly seat in the 2009 elections and retained the seat in the 2010 by-election.
KCR became the first Chief Minister of the state in 2014.
In 2014, KCR contested the Lok Sabha elections from Medak and the Assembly elections from Gajwel. He was elected from both the places. When TRS got majority in the 119-member Telangana Assembly, he gave up the Medak seat to become the first Chief Minister of the new state. In the same election, KCR’s daughter Kavita was elected to the Lok Sabha from Nizamabad. KCR’s son and nephew were elected to the assembly from Sircilla and Siddipet respectively and became ministers in his cabinet.
TRS retained power in the 2018 elections. Kavita lost the Nizamabad Lok Sabha seat to BJP’s Dharampuri Arvind in the 2019 elections. Later she was elected to the Legislative Council. In 2022, KCR renamed TRS as BRS to focus on national politics. But after ruling the state for 10 years, the party was voted out of power late last year after losing the elections to the Congress.
KCR contested from two assembly seats Gajwel and Kamareddy. He retained Gajavel, but lost Kamareddy. This was his first electoral defeat since 1985. KTR and Harish Rao retained their seats. In the ongoing Lok Sabha elections, there were indications that Kavita would again contest from Nizamabad, but KCR decided not to field her. Kavita has recently been arrested in the alleged Delhi Excise Policy case. There were also speculations that KCR might contest the Lok Sabha elections from Medak or Malkajgiri, but he decided to focus on state politics.
