KTR takes over as TRS working prez

K T Rama Rao, the son of TRS chief and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, took over as the party's working president on Monday, a move seen by many as his virtual anointment as the heir apparent.

Amid much fanfare, Rama Rao, popularly known as KTR, assumed the new responsibility at Telangana Bhavan, the party headquarters here. State Home Minister Mohammad Mahmood Ali, and senior leader and the chief minister's nephew, T Harish Rao, were among those present.

Thousands of party workers, holding placards and some dancing to drumbeats, took part in a rally led by Rama Rao to the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) headquarters.

The activists hailed Rama Rao, who had held key portfolios in the first TRS government, as a "visionary" leader.

The 42-year old, who was considered as the number two in the party for the past couple of years, had played a key role in the thumping win of the TRS in the recent Assembly polls.

Rama Rao said the party president had given him an important responsibility to make TRS an "unconquerable force in the future, as time has come for him (Chandrasekhar Rao) to be involved in government administration, in taking forward the welfare and development schemes undertaken on a large scale by the state government".

Rama Rao, known to be a suave and articulate leader, has been appointed as the working president as Chandrasekhar Rao would be focusing on national politics, a release from the Chief Minister's Office had said last week.

Rama Rao, who was the minister for IT, industries and municipal administration in the previous government, won from the Sircilla constituency for the fourth time in the recent Assembly polls.

After doing MSc in biotechnology from the University of Pune, Rao went on to obtain an MBA degree in marketing and e-commerce from City University of New York.

It has been a meteoric rise for Rama Rao since he took the political plunge in 2009 after quitting the lucrative job in the United States.