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Battleground Telangana
June 2, 2014: KCR, Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao, was sworn in as the first Chief Minister of India’s newest state, Telangana. It was a day many ‘Telanganites’ rejoiced and many ‘Andhras’ wept. For some it was their beloved State being torn apart and for others it was a historical wrong, righted. Life is about to get exciting again, for the first election since Telangana’s formation is upon us sooner than we expected.
The confident incumbent
A supremely confident Chief Minister, KCR, has dissolved the assembly early and the state could be poll bound along with Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan by November 2018. A shrewd move, no doubt. There is little opposition to KCR and you even struggle to think of another local politician’s name who could be a challenger.
KCR has also shown (Kejriwal, are you listening) to the nation that moving from agitator and provocateur-in-chief to statesman is possible. One just has to shed their persecution complex.