Kalvakuntla Tarakarama Rao, the Sircilla MLA and the new working president of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, (TRS), has come a long way in a short span of time, emerging as the Number Two man in the party. KTR has proved his mettle once again in the recent elections to the state assembly where he played a very active role in driving the message of the TRS home to voters in different parts of the state, notably in the Greater Hyderabad area.

Proficient in English as well as Telugu, the 42 year-old KTR can, like his father, chief minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao (KCR), pack a fierce punch in colloquial Telangana dialect, as he demonstrated repeatedly during the course of electioneering. In 2006, he returned from the USA where he was working in an IT firm, to help his father in stregthening the TRS, which was founded in 2001. KTR participated in the election campaign seeking support for his father who contested the 2006 Karimnagar bye-polls, after resigning from the Union cabinet in UPA I. KCR won the Lok Sabha seat by a majority of 2 lakh votes.

KTR won the Sircilla assembly seat in 2009 by a slender majority and in July 2010, he resigned his seat along with 10 other MLAs for the cause of a separate Telangana state. In the ensuing bye-polls, he was elected to the assembly with a majority of 68,219 votes. KTR participated actively in the struggle for a separate Telangana and was arrested on many occasions, apart from being booked in several cases. In the 2014 assembly elections, KTR was elected to the assembly with a majority of 53,000 votes.

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Following the bifurcation the undivided state of Andhra Pradesh, and the formation of Telangana, KTR became the minister for Information Technology and Panchayat Raj. He drove the IT sector to new heights and made Hyderabad not just an IT hub, but a major centre of investments as well. KTR played a key role in organizing the World IT Congress, as also the Investors' Summit and won acclaim for his addresses on these occasions.

KTR handled the portfolio of Panchayat Raj in his assured style and was the moving force behind the party's success in the GHMC polls held in February 2016. The TRS won 99 seats out of 150, scoring a resounding victory.

Also Read:After Making KTR Working President, What Post Will KCR Give Harish Rao?