The loss in Kamareddy is Rao’s first loss after his first electoral battle in 1983, when he contested from Siddipet on a Telugu Desam Party ticket and lost by just 887 votes against Ananthula Madan Mohan of the Congress.
Published Date – 06:00 PM, Sun – 3 December 23
Siddipet: Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, who will head to the Assembly after winning from Gajwel, has lost an election after 40 years and 14 victories, nine as an MLA and five as an MP. The loss in Kamareddy is Rao’s first loss after his first electoral battle in 1983, when he contested from Siddipet on a Telugu Desam Party ticket and lost by just 887 votes against Ananthula Madan Mohan of the Congress.
Born in Chinthamadaka village in Siddipet mandal, Chandrashekhar Rao however had his first victory in 1985 by defeating the T Mahender Reddy in Siddipet. After this victory, he never looked back as he won as MLA nine times, which is a record in Telangana, and also as an MP five times. Rao won as MLA from Siddipet for six consecutive times from 1985 to 2004. After his victories in 1985, 1989, 1994, and 1999, he had started raising his voice demanding Statehood for Telangana.
To raise his voice for the cause, Rao, who was also Deputy Speaker in the State Assembly in 2001, tendered his resignation as Deputy Speaker and MLA and founded the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS). He then contested as an MLA again in the by-election and won. In 2004, he contested as MLA from Siddipet and as MP from the Karimnagar Lok Sabha constituency. After winning both seats, he resigned as MLA and went on to become a Minister in the Manmohan Singh government.
When Congress had failed to keep the promise of creating Telangana State, he resigned as Minister and MP in 2006 and contested again from Karimnagar and won. However, he resigned, contested the by-election for the same cause from Karimnagar in 2008 and won the seat for a third consecutive time in less than four years.
In the 2009 elections, Rao contested from the Mahbubnagar Lok Sabha constituency and won. After the announcement of a separate State in 2014, Rao contested as MP from Medak Lok Sabha Constituency and from Gajwel as MLA. He won both seats again, and after resigning as MP, became the first Chief Minister of Telangana. He won from Gajwel again in 2018 and became Chief Minister for the second consecutive time.
This time, he decided to contest from both Gajwel and Kamareddy, and lost in Kamareddy.
