Where is KCR? Opposition seeks clarity about his health as Telangana CM goes MIA for three weeks

BJP leader writes to governor, seeks regular health bulletins on CM who ha not been seen for three weeks. Compares KCR’s situation to Kanshi Ram, Jayalalithaa to seek intervention.

 Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao (KCR), who has been missing in action for the last three weeks ostensibly for health reasons, is now in the centre of a political storm, with the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) writing to the governor on the “veil of secrecy” about his health conditions. 

KCR’s last public appearance was on 17 September, when he hoisted the national flag and delivered a speech at the Public Gardens in Hyderabad on the occasion of the Telangana Integration Day. Since then, he has been reportedly suffering from viral fever and cough, followed by a secondary bacterial infection in his lungs. 

His son and minister K.T. Rama Rao (KTR), who has also been filling in for his father in some official events, has been the only source of information about his health and whereabouts during this period. Amid the health concerns, KCR’s wife Shobha Rao Tuesday visited the Tirumala shrine in Andhra Pradesh and paid obeisance.

Raising apprehensions about CM’s absence, BJP leader Marri Shashidhar Reddy wrote to Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, demanding clarity on KCR’s medical condition and treatment. He cited examples of how other political leaders had kept their health issues secret from the public in the past. 

“There has been a veil of secrecy about the CM’s health condition. It was revealed a few days ago that he had a mild viral infection. Yesterday, suddenly a disclosure has been, purportedly, made by his son and minister KTR that his father has a secondary (bacterial) infection of the lungs,” Reddy, the chairman, Election Commission Affairs Committee, BJP Telangana, said in the letter Saturday. has a copy of the letter.

The letter added that, whenever there were instances of illness of a person holding such a high public office, regular health bulletins were put out by the hospital authorities and state health officials. 

“This is not to be seen here,” Reddy said, adding that as the “son of Chenna Reddy, a former CM of undivided Andhra Pradesh and governor of four different states”, he is aware of protocols followed in such situations.

Reddy, a former senior Congressman, also claimed that there was a growing public concern “because of the fate of eminent personalities, like late Kanshi Ram, whose condition was kept shrouded in secrecy from the outside world by his protege Mayawati, creating doubts in the minds of the people about his real condition.”

Citing another instance of former Tamil Nadu chief minister J. Jayalalithaa, he said that “how the health condition of J. Jayalalithaa was totally wrapped in secrecy, supposedly at the instance of V.K. Sasikala, also led to several suspicions.”   

“As a son, KTR has the right to brief about his father’s condition … (but) Telangana people have the right to be properly briefed about their Chief Minister, by competent medical authorities,” Reddy said, requesting the governor to direct the chief secretary to do the needful.

“This will put to rest any possible misgivings of neglect and inadequate or inappropriate care,” Reddy said. 

Meanwhile, the chief minister’s office (CMO) released a statement Monday, saying that KCR would hold a meeting at the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) headquarters on 15 October to release the election manifesto and hand over ‘B’ forms to his candidates for the 30 November assembly polls. 

The same day, KCR will begin his election tours in constituencies with a rally at Husnabad, it said, adding that he will also file his nomination papers from Siddipet and Kamareddy segments on 9 November.

Meanwhile, Reddy’s remarks invited a objection from BRS leader Dasoju Sravan, who said that he “should instead be worried about his assembly ticket from the BJP and an election campaign to win”.   

Sravan said that “it is a season of viral fever, and many people, including his close family members, were affected”. 

“Our CM, about 70 years old, is on course of recovery and is anyway operational, meeting people, taking decisions and doing what he should as the CM for the state,” 

On Monday, addressing a public meeting in Parkal, KTR said that “within a day or two, the tiger (KCR) will come out and all the foxes (opposition leaders) will go into hiding”.

However, former bureaucrat R.V. Chandravadan pointed out that KCR’s disappearing acts were not new to Telangana people. “One cannot be sure if the CM is in the Pragathi Bhavan, or on one of his retreats at his farmhouse,” he said. 

Pragathi Bhavan is the CM’s palatial office-cum-residence in the posh Begumpet area.