Telangana’s political temperature is rising sharply as the state inches toward local body and civic polls. And at the centre of this storm sits the KCR family, once the unchallenged power axis of Telangana, now increasingly cornered by investigative agencies, political rivals, and their own internal fissures. The aura of invincibility that surrounded the BRS for a decade is cracking—fast, loud, and visibly.
The latest jolt came when the state governor formally cleared the state investigative agency’s move to act on prima facie evidence in the sensational car race scandal. This case, until recently dismissed by the BRS as an exaggerated political stunt, has now gained sudden traction after a senior bureaucrat confessed that he had released funds to the organisers on oral instructions. No prizes for guessing whose “oral instructions” would carry that much weight during the BRS regime.
And with K. Chandrashekar Rao largely absent from active political engagement, the burden of defending the indefensible falls squarely on his son and BRS Working President K.T. Rama Rao. Once heralded as the suave, tech-friendly face of Telangana’s political future, KTR now looks increasingly defensive, firefighting scandals that seem to multiply by the week.
But the KCR family’s troubles don’t end there. In an unprecedented public rebellion, KCR’s own daughter quit the party and threatened to float a new political outfit. When family loyalty fractures, political loyalty is not far behind—and cadres know it. This internal implosion is happening at the exact moment the BRS needs unity to survive.
Just when the BRS hoped the worst was behind them, the Centre quietly dropped the big one—a long-pending CBI probe into the multi-crore Kaleshwaram irrigation project. This is not just another investigation. This is the golden goose of alleged Telangana scams.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah had already, during both the 2023 Assembly and 2024 Lok Sabha campaigns, labelled the project as the “personal ATM” of the then-ruling BRS. For months, the Congress government under A. Revanth Reddy had demanded a CBI probe. Yet the Centre seemed hesitant—until now. The timing is politically loaded, and no one in Hyderabad is naïve enough to miss the message.
Though the Congress administration did set up a judicial probe led by a sitting judge, the outcome—kept deliberately away from public scrutiny—raised more questions than answers. The ambiguity in the report only strengthened perceptions that the rot in Kaleshwaram runs far deeper than what either party is willing to admit.
Enter the BJP, strategically recalibrating its southern push after setbacks in Karnataka. With the BRS wounded, defensive, and losing public sympathy, the saffron party senses an opening. And tightening the noose around the KCR family through a series of high-profile corruption cases is a politically convenient way to project itself as the “real” challenger to the Congress in Telangana.
Because make no mistake—the BJP is not doing this out of altruistic concern for public funds. This is politics. And in Telangana, the game is shifting rapidly.
The Congress, for its part, is hardly on moral high ground. Chief Minister Revanth Reddy himself continues to be haunted by the infamous “cash-for-vote” case, where he was caught on camera handing over a cash-filled bag to an independent MLC. The BJP has kept this case alive in public memory, reminding voters that the Congress cannot claim a clean slate either.
So, Telangana today stands at a volatile intersection:
- A weakened BRS battling internal rebellion and external investigations.
- A Congress government struggling to escape its own controversial past.
- A BJP sharpening its knives, determined to occupy the anti-Congress space.
In this triangular battle, the KCR family—once untouchable—now finds itself in the crosshairs from all directions. And as the agencies tighten their grip, one thing becomes clear: the political script in Telangana is being rewritten, and for the first time in a decade, the BRS is no longer holding the pen.
