Telangana: Brand KCR Takes Beating?

Telangana CM is undoubtedly a true mass leader and he is the architect of the modern movement of Telangana. He has pioneered the cause of statehood of Telangana and achieved the statehood successfully.

While KCR 1.0 is the best as he single handedly overcame the crisis like power crisis and water crisis defying all the odds, KCR 2.0 has been witnessing several administrative failures and facing severe criticism including the latest ‘mishandling’ of Corona Virus pandemic.

KCR, who had initially conducted several press conferences and built confidence among the Telangana people on Corona and boosted moral strength, has slowly gone into oblivion with the rapid increase in the Covid cases and deaths.

At first, KCR had ignored Corona and stated that his government would go all out in battling the novel virus and asked people not to worry. But slowly things went out of control and cases grew. None other than the Deputy CM and Home Minister had contracted the virus. The Health Ministry of the state put its efforts but the spread of the virus was beyond control.

While CM KCR had stopped his press conferences on Covid, at last, minister KTR came out in the media and stated that no country in the world has fought Covid successfully so far. He said the Telangana state government is trying its best to beat the Covid. However, the state has been accused of conducting the ‘lowest’ number of Covid tests. Opposition parties alleged the government of ‘hiding’ the Covid cases.

Meanwhile, the rankings and surveys indicated a steep decline in KCR’s charisma. The latest survey by India Today-Karvy Insights ranked Telangana CM KCR at the ninth rank in the Best Performing CMs list whilst AP CM Jaganmohan Reddy stood at the third rank. All these indicate that the Brand KCR took a severe beating in the state.

However, there are three years and four months left for KCR to bounce back. As the next polls are due in 2023, TRS is confident that their leader would turn the things in his favour once again. The advantage for KCR in Telangana is the ‘weak opposition’ and lack of a face to stand against KCR. Let’s wait and see, what is in store for KCR.