Assume that number one in most regional political parties of India is that it’s all in the family, then rule number two in political families is that the son always wins over the nephew!The first example is the Shiv Sena, where nephew Raj Thackeray had to exit the party and form his Maharashtra Navnirman Sena in 2006 after it was clear that son Uddhav Thackeray will succeed Bal Thackeray, the late founder of the firebrand political party.
The second example is the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the nephew here was late Union Minister Murasoli Maran, who was once the most trusted confidant of uncle and the late DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi.
But though he was way senior by age and stature, son MK Stalin was the undisputed heir. Maran even threatened to quit active politics in 2001, but reconciled and accepted the inevitable. Today, his sons Dayanidhi and Kalanidhi Maran, owners of the Sun network, are only in the periphery of a party which is ruled by Stalin.
As the newly formed state of Telangana heads into its first election as an independent state, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, a firm family enterprise, seems all set to be a third example to prove the nephew versus son rule.
Party Supremo and Chief Minister Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao’s (KCR) 42- year-old son Kalvakuntla Taraka Rama Rao (KTR) is rising and Thanneru Harish Rao, KCR’s 46-year-old nephew and long-time confidant, is being overshadowed.
A brief recap of the last few years will help understand how the story of the son and nephew unfolded as the party catapulted to power in 2014.
At the end of the 2009 Assembly polls, the TRS was just a small sub-regional party. One that was a distant third player, with small caste base confined to the Telangana region, in a Congress versus Telugu Desam Party battle for a united Andhra Pradesh.
More importantly, Telangana as a separate state was just an idea then, a political demand that seemed to have no clear future. KCR, who split from the TDP in 2001 to establish the TRS, had limited prospects and had to live in the shadow of the big two. In fact, a separate Telangana wasn’t even a major electoral issue then.
At this time, there was no space for anyone else but the leader KCR in the TRS and his nephew Harish Rao, who first became an MLA from the family bastion of Siddipet in 2004, was the most trusted lieutenant. Harish Rao has been with KCR since the beginning and was instrumental in establishing the party after KCR walked out of the TDP. KCR’s son and daughter were not even involved in active politics.
Suddenly, the death of Congress’s strongman Chief Minister YS Rajashekar Reddy in a helicopter crash, in September 2009, set in motion a series of events that altered the fate of the state. The Congress was in disarray and taking advantage of the political flux KCR re-ignited the Telangana agitation with a fast unto death for a separate state in December 2009.
