TRS Chief Chandrasekhar Rao with other party workers celebrating the passage of the Telangana Bill in the Lok Sabha at his residence in New Delhi on February 18, 2014.
When K Chandrasekhar Rao's Telangana Rashtra Samiti was reduced to two Lok Sabha seats in 2009, not many were willing to place their bets on him. Five years later, he has staged a stunning comeback by becoming the first chief minister of India's 29th state. His tenacity, perseverance and sense of timing have earned the grudging admiration of even his critics.
It was his sense of timing that led Mr Rao, 60, to quit the post of deputy speaker of Andhra Pradesh, and the Telugu Desam Party, or the TDP, in 2001, and float his own party to fight for the creation of a separate state of Telangana.
KCR, as Mr Rao is popularly known among his supporters, almost achieved his goal in 2009 by going on an indefinite fast, forcing the then union home minister, P Chidambaram to announce that the process for a separate Telangana state will be set in motion.
However, the backlash in Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra, or Seemandhra, regions forced the Centre to put the issue in cold storage.
While the Congress, BJP and even a section of the TDP are now trying to take credit for the formation of the new state, even the most bitter critics of KCR admit that it was he who resurrected the Telangana movement.
Known for his acerbic criticism of rivals with a mixture of Telugu and Urdu words, he galvanised people's support by highlighting the injustices meted out to the region since its merger with Andhra Pradesh when the linguistic state was formed in 1956.
His slogans like "
Telangana waley jago, Andhra waley bhago" (Arise people of Telangana, run away people of Andhra) made him controversial.
He did not spare Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh either for going back on the December 9, 2009 announcement and even threatened "civil war" and "bloodbath".
He built the TRS into a key political force in the region. Realising this, the Congress entered into an alliance with the TRS in 2004 by promising to look into the Telangana demand.
Making an impressive debut, the TRS bagged 26 assembly and five Lok Sabha seats but could not emerge as a kingmaker in the state. His credibility took a beating with his decision to join the Congress-led coalitions both at the Centre and in the state but he argued it is part of his strategy to achieve the final goal.
Though KCR succeeded in taking the Telangana issue to the center stage and extracted promises from the Congress-led UPA government, for some years he failed to achieve his goal.
His flip-flop on the issue, the repeated deadlines he fixed for achieving the goal, his perceived dictatorial attitude and controversial decisions disillusioned the party cadre and 10 legislators staged a revolt.
He pulled out of coalition governments and threatened to expose the Congress for betraying the people of Telangana. However, his gamble of going for by-elections in 2008 boomeranged on him as the TRS could retain only seven assembly and two Lok Sabha seats.
He found a new ally in the TDP after it backed the demand for a separate Telangana state before the 2009 elections.
The TRS contested 50 of the 119 assembly seats in the Telangana region but won only 10. The Congress retained power and then chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy interpreted the TRS' rout as the vote against bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh.
KCR's party was in total disarray with leaders, unhappy with him, deserting the TRS. Chief Minister YSR Reddy was also trying to woo its leaders. The death of the chief minister in a helicopter crash in September 2009, however, dramatically changed the political scene.
A month later, when the Supreme Court declared Hyderabad a free zone in matters of recruitment to police department, KCR saw an opportunity to bounce back. The TRS started protests and KCR himself went on hunger strike.
His deteriorating condition and massive protests across the region again forced the Centre to concede the demand.
Though the Centre backtracked, the movement for separate state had reached every home in the region. Mass protests and suicide of over 900 people forced all parties to come together for a common goal.
KCR, a four-time member of the Andhra Pradesh assembly, also served as minister in the TDP government. He was elected to the Lok Sabha from Karimnagar in 2004 and from Mahbubnagar in 2009.
He has two children - son K Tarakarama Rao is a member of the assembly and daughter K Kavitha heads Telangana Jagruthi, a cultural group.
Ms Kavitha is the new Lok Sabha member from Nizamabad. Mr Rao himself won from the Medak parliamentary constituency and the Gajwel seat in the state assembly. He has now resigned from his Lok Sabha seat.
As the first chief minister of Telangana, Mr Rao faces a formidable task of developing the state. It contains some of the poorest districts of India, is rain-deficit and irrigation facilities are poor. Hyderabad and its adjoining areas are an island of prosperity, but the other districts are under-developed.