KCR set to make major changes in party, state

HYDERABAD: As the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) government completes three years in its second term on Sunday, Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao is all set to put welfare schemes and development programmes on fast track besides gearing up his party for the 2023 Assembly polls.

According to party sources, the Chief Minister turned his focus on tightening administration and reforming government machinery to deliver effective services to people soon after MLC election code ends on December 16. He is expected to make key changes in the government to streamline administration and also in the party in 2022 soon after Sankranti in January, sources added.

A Cabinet reshuffle is also not ruled out after Sankranti besides a major administrative rejig of IAS and IPS officers, which has been pending since 2018. The Chief Minister is also expected to fill over 500 nominated posts in the government and boost the morale of the party's rank and file and brace them for Assembly polls which are just two years away.

Rao took oath as the Chief Minister for the second term on December 13, 2018, after the TRS retained power in Assembly polls with a landslide majority.

But the Chief Minister faced several challenges and obstructions in his second term due to successive elections since 2018 December Assembly polls to local bodies polls and Lok Sabha polls in 2019, Huzurnagar Assembly bypoll in October 2019, Dubbak Assembly bypoll and GHMC polls in 2020-end, Graduate MLC polls, municipal polls, Nagarjunasagar Assembly bypoll in April 2021, Huzurabad Assembly bypoll in October 2021 and MLC polls under local bodies held on Friday.

The election code of conduct, which was in force for several months in phases due to successive elections during the last three years, prevented the Chief Minister from taking decisions on launching new development programmes or welfare schemes.

The Covid first wave in March 2019 and second wave in April 2020 created financial problems for the state government due to lockdowns and business restrictions for several months which resulted in Rs 1 lakh crore loss to the state exchequer.

Now that the Covid situation came under control and all elections came to an end in Telangana with recent MLC polls, the Chief Minister has decided to fast track development programmes and welfare schemes for the remaining two years tenure of the TRS government.

Barring minor setbacks in GHMC polls, Dubbak and Huzurabad Assembly bypolls in the last three years, the TRS swept all the elections with a huge majority held since December 2018.