The son shines in India’s sunrise State

In the end it was a rout. And one man, K Taraka Rama Rao, stood victorious over the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) battlefield, having led the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) to a resounding victory, and reducing the major opposition parties to single digits.

KTR, as he is popularly known, was immediately rewarded by his father, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, by being made cabinet minister for Municipal Administration and Urban Development. He is already Minister for IT and Panchayati Raj.

The new responsibility puts him in charge of the development of the entire State (urban and rural areas) and will give him enormous political clout, say observers. Overwhelming victory

The TRS won over a 100 seats in the 150-ward GHMC elections last week. Some see the victory as KTR’s gift to his father — even invoking the title of the recently released Telugu flick Nannaku Prematho (With Love, To Daddy).

The scale of the junior Rao’s achievement in the civic polls is underlined by the fact that the Opposition — TDP, BJP and Congress — has been reduced to a single-digit presence. Asaduddin Owaisi’s MIM is the chief opposition party in the GHMC, retaining its hold over its traditional stronghold, the old city, with 42 seats.

In the 20 months that the TRS has been in power, the 39-year-old KTR has endeared himself to the urban youth, the tech-savvy and the IT industry. He has emerged as the most visible face of the government, dealing with international delegations, corporates and so on.

While most other ministers followed a low-key approach, KTR grew in perception as the de facto No 2, raising eyebrows and drawing muted criticism from some quarters within the TRS. KCR, however, gave his son free rein.

For the GHMC elections on February 2, KTR led a well-crafted and intense campaign that took him to 80 per cent of all the wards. He harped on development, clean administration and making Hyderabad a global, liveable city.

During the last six months, the TRS government has been pushing its flagship scheme of two-bedroom housing for the urban poor, uninterrupted power supply and regular supply of water.

At least in the first two, it showcased achievements. The bigger strategy at the political level was to first soothe the feelings of the ‘settlers’ (people who hail from Andhra Pradesh) in Hyderabad and then woo them with incentives.

First, the party toned down its rhetoric against the large population and, secondly, encouraged them to contest on its banner.

Nara Lokesh, the son of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, who led the TDP campaign in several pockets of Hyderabad and nurses high political ambitions, did not cut much ice with the electorate.

KTR, who pursued postgraduate studies in the US and worked there, has his task cut out. While his full-throttle engagement with the IT sector is yielding results, many small and medium enterprises and industry sectors are desperately craving for support.

They can provide employment to Telangana’s rural youth, who were wooed during the State elections with the promise of livelihoods.

KTR may well be harbouring greater ambitions. At a political meeting a month ago, he said the TRS could well contest elections in Andhra Pradesh. The place he would choose was Bhimavaram in East Godavari, he declared. “We could win as the people there will vote for us if we okay ‘cock fights’,” said KTR in a lighter vein.

The import of these statements will only be known only when an election comes up in the neighbouring State.

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