Hyderabad: The lakhs of people, TRS workers and leaders who had gathered for Sunday’s Pragathi Nivedana Sabha missed Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s punch dialogues, humour and trademark use of the Telangana dialect.

These are aspects of Mr Rao’s speeches which attract people. Besides, Mr Rao has his own style to criticise the Opposition but largely held his fire.





On Sunday, the people and TRS leaders had a different Mr Rao on view. In his nearly hour-long speech, Mr Rao confined himself to telling the people about the achievements of the TRS government over the past four years.

TRS senior leaders were surprised that Mr Rao departed from his usual style. He is known for his hard-hitting lines and cutting jokes even at press conferences. Rural audiences hang on to his use of the Telangana idiom and nuance. Mr Rao is the only mass leader in the state who can attract people with his oratory.

A senior leader said, “I was surprised at KCR’s speech, I saw a different KCR for the first time. I don’t know why he spoke like that.”

Speaking in Mr Rao’s defence, some TRS leaders said the aim of the Pragathi Nivedana Sabha was to inform the people about the achievements of the TRS government and he confined himself to that agenda.

Mr Rao is a strong critic of the Congress and the BJP but on Sunday did not make any comment against the two parties except taking an indirect dig at the Congress regarding “ghulamgiri”.

He did not speak about the Centre or the BJP, and did not even bring up the issue of 12 per cent reservations for Muslims which is pending with the Centre for several months.