K Chandrashekhar Rao, chief minister of Telangana

K Chandrashekhar Rao, popularly known as KCR, became the first ever chief minister of Telangana when the state was carved out of Andhra Pradesh in 2014.

Rao was a four-time member of the legislative assembly from the Telugu Desam party and was a minister in the Andhra Pradesh government. In 2001, he founded the Telangana Rashtra Samithi to demand separate statehood. When elections were held in 2014, Rao’s party swept to power without the aid of the Congress or the BJP.