Telangana Elections 2023: Between Congress and the November 30 polling day stands the BRS triumvirate of KCR, KTR and Harish Rao

Telangana Elections 2023: Will KCR succeed in his mission to do a hat-trick this time with the help of the son and nephew?

As the third election in the country’s youngest state fast approaches, the “Big Three” of the state’s ruling party Bharat Rashtra Samithi has come under the spotlight. BRS founder K Chandrashekar Rao, popularly known by his initials KCR, his son KT Rama Rao or KTR, and nephew Thaneeru Harish Rao are regarded as a triumvirate in Telangana who keeps triumphing over their rivals by virtue of their leadership traits.

Neta With His Finger On Telangana’s Pulse 

The 69-year old KCR is the face of his party’s electioneering, revelling in his role as the mascot of Telangana pride. His son and the nephew are, of course, the mainstay of the BRS party organisation. Rising from scratch from amid the thick and thin and highs and lows of the gruelling statehood movement, Chandrasekhar Rao was able to acquire the gift of the gab to charm the masses and unleash a war of wits against his rivals couched in the native idiom and dialect.

In his illustrious political career spanning over more than four decades, Rao found his footing as a down-to-earth mass leader with deep understanding of ground level issues which has helped him emerge as a leader without parallel in the state polity.

KCR launched his political career as a Youth Congress leader and then switched sides to the TDP floated by matinee icon NT Rama Rao. He soon went on to make his debut in the state assembly in 1985. Since then, KCR has never tasted defeat in any election, be it in a state or Parliament election.

The Son Also Rises 

Though his son KTR is enviously dubbed “Yuvaraj” by his rivals, he has walked the extra mile to erase the label. After earning a Masters in Business Management in Marketing and E-Commerce from the City University of New York and brief stints in MNCs, KTR returned home to assist his father in the statehood movement.

Soon, Rama Rao proved that he is a chip off the old block by sharpening for himself as a double-edged weapon – mastering oratorical skills in the typical colloquial language of Telangana to connect with commoners on ground, the way his father does, and on the other side swaying the elite and captains of the industry,  IT professionals and the upwardly mobile urban middle class of the rapidly growing Hyderabad metropolis with his fluent and flawless English.

KTR is regarded as KCR’s heir apparent and the No-2 in the ruling party’s hierarchy. His father has sent out such a clear message after his party sweeping the election in 2018 for the second time by anointing him as the working president of the then TRS, now rebranded as the BRS. In the thick of the statehood movement, KTR had won the assembly election from Siricilla in 2009 and since then his career has been on an upward trajectory. When his father was indisposed in the run up to the current elections, it was the 47- year-old Rama Rao who ran the government and his party while taking care not to overshadow KCR.

The Equally Astute Nephew 

Harish Rao, son of KCR’s sister Laxmi Bai, was groomed as an affable leader with easy access to people, under the tutelage of KCR himself during the statehood movement. Harish entered the portals of the assembly in the united Andhra state as the youngest winner of the 2004-2009 assembly at the age of 32 by winning Siddipet with an impressive majority in a byelection in 2004. The bypoll was triggered by KCR vacating the seat and opting to retain Karimnagar Lok Sabha seat. KCR had contested from both Siddipet assembly segment and Karimnagar Parliament seat then.

Siddipet under the aegis of Harish over a period of time has turned out to be an invincible fortress for the TRS-turned-BRS as he continues to be a four-term lawmaker from this assembly segment. That his winning the election from in 2018 with a huge majority of 1,18,699 votes – which was higher than that of KCR in Gajwel and KTR in Siricilla – indicates the strong base he enjoys among people.

Following the impressive 2018 victory that completely decimated the opposition Congress, KCR turned his attention inward to his own party affairs. He tactfully diffused the discontent within his party over succession. He shunted out Etela Rajendar, a rebel OBC leader in his cabinet, who was nursing chief ministerial ambitions and then tamed his nephew Harish’s ambitions of succeeding him.

The Raos Versus The Rest

The triumvirate of KCR-KTR-Harish Rao, however, closed ranks in the face of a string of BJP electoral successes since 2019 that threatened to upset the BRS applecart.  Their biggest challenge was the Munugode assembly bypoll last November.

But the BRS managed to stop the BJP juggernaut in its tracks in perhaps the most hotly contested, and allegedly most expensive, bypoll the country has witnessed. Subsequently, the BJP’s collapse in Telangana has been rapid.

But before the KCR-KTR-Harish Rao combine could rest easy came the sudden Congress revival after the Karnataka assembly polls this May. Will KCR succeed in his mission to do a hat-trick this time with the help of the son and nephew? Though the family faces allegations of nepotism from its political rivals, voters don’t seem to be holding that against the troika’s leadership abilities. One has to wait till the people’s verdict on November 30.

The fact that the Congress and the BJP are groping in the dark for potential candidates to field against KCR, KTR and Harish in their respective assembly segments and check their winning streak shows this is a political dynasty that hasn’t lost its connect with the masses despite long years in power.

Surely, the Gandhis, the Badal clan of Punjab, the Deve Gowda clan of Karnataka, or the Yadav clans of UP and Bihar running SP and RJD respectively cannot boast with the same certainty about their pocket boroughs.

Gali Nagaraja is a senior journalist, formerly associated with The Hindu, The Times of India, and Hindustan Times for over three decades. Views are personal, and do not represent the stand of this publication.